Birth of a Legend: Naruto the Trickster
by emauser
Summary: What if Naruto wasn’t so stupid as it seemed? What if when he was small he really liked books and reading? What if he acted dumb just so nobody would get in his way? Take a look yourself. My own interpretation of manga. Smart Naruto, pairings undecided.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. This privilege goes to Masashi Kishimoto.

My first fanfic so here are few details:

"Here we go again" – normal speech

"_And I thought it was over"_ – thoughts, flashbacks

"**Water Release: Water Dragon Missile"** – jutsu names

"_**Listen here kit"**_ – tailed beast talking

**- Konoha - **–names of the places or time indicators

All names of jutsus/techniques will be given in English as well as all titles or nicknames. That's due to my incredibly weak knowledge of Japanese language. The only thing borrowed from Japanese will be honorifics as I think they provide better insight into relationship between characters then English ones and maybe few other small things like names of the five main villages.

So without further delay I give you the first chapter of **"Birth of a Legend: Naruto the Trickster"**

Enjoy!

* * *

Prologue

10th Ocotber.

Dreadful day has come for Konohagakure no Sato.

Kyubi no Youko was approaching the village and nothing that ninja throwed at him seemed to be able to stop him. In the Hokage office several people were arguing. Homura Mitakado and Akane Kitano were arguing over evacuation of the village. Uchiha Fugaku was demanding explanation why Kyubi was allowed to come so close to Konoha. Even the ever stoic head of the Hyuga clan was agitated while discussing the best course of action with Koharu Utatane from the village council. Behind the desk stood a tall man with storm of blond hair and white cloak with red flames staring outside the window. Danzo wasn't present.

'_Probably commanding his "Root" unit'_, thought Sarutobi as he surveyed the room. He sighed seeing general disorder. At times like this he wished that at least one of his students was present in the village even though it wouldn't help them defeat the Kyubi, but maybe less people would die. He discovered about Orochimaru's experiments not long after he nominated Minato as the Fourth Hokage. Orochimaru managed to flee the village or rather was allowed and hasn't resurfaced yet. Tsunade leaved soon after broken after losing those precious to her and seeing war raging across the country, Jiraiya was always on the way droping by for just a few days before leaving again to keep an eye on Orochimaru and his spy network working.

" Enough!", ordered suddenly the man behind the desk. Though the voice wasn't much louder than usually, steel in it forced everyone to silence, "There's nothing more to talk about. Those who are capable should go fighting, rest to the shelters with the villagers."

"But...", someone started.

"Don't worry. I have a plan. I just ask you to delay him for one more hour", he assured them. People started leaving. First Akane and Hiashi Hyuga shunshined out to join the battle, reluctanctly followed by Fugaku Uchiha. Both advisors left through the door to join the villagers. Sarutobi stayed behind and looked at his succesor.

"I presume you know what you're doing", he said, for some time he had this strange feeling, something like promonition though he couldn't put his finger on what exactly was it.

"Of course", the man responded turning from the window with a small smile, "I know perfectly well what I'm doing, that's why I have a favor to ask from you Hokage-sama, two actually".

"Hokage-sama??", Sarutobi looked dumbfounded at the man in front of him, "You can't be thinking on using that jutsu. Think about the village, about people"

"What about them? They'll survive, get over it with time, still live and have a happy time. It's not them I'm worried about. Even though it's for them I've taken such a decision"

"Then what about Kushina?"

"She'll also understand. She loved me for who I am. It won't come as a big surprise that I decided to do this"

"Then at least allow me to perform this jutsu"

"We both know that you don't have enough chakra to do it. It would be waste of a good life. Besides the village will need someone to lead them on. The war with Iwa is not finished yet. They'll need you. I appreciate the offer though."

Sarutobi looked down. He knew the young Hokage was right. He didn't have enough chakra to seal demon of this caliber. He tried to think over the entire situation, find another way of doing it, another way out of this hopeless situation. He spoke after several minutes of silence.

"What do you want from me?", he surrendered, this was not a place to argue as they were running out of time.

"Two simple things. First you'll need to take him to the chamber in the underground so that I can perform the jutsu. Everything is prepared so all you have to do is place him in it. Second one is bit more difficult." Minato stopped for a moment to collect his thoughts, "I know he'll have a tough life. He'll have his mother and Akane will help too but it still won't be easy. Will you look after him?"

"Of course I will. That's the least I can do for you for all that you have done for the village.", Sarutobi responded.

"Thank you. I'll write a letter for him and leave it with you. Give it to him when you think time is proper. Also tell the villagers that they should view him as a hero rather than demon."

"A hero?", Sarutobi asked, curious why the young man would make such an odd request. He judged people fairly but could be strict when the situation called for it. But he never gave his verdict prematurely, he judged based on people actions rather then appearances and had a very strong code about it,

"Yes, I know it's too early to decide that but I believe in him. Besides if I said to treat him as just a normal boy no one would pay attention to my words. This way maybe some at least will listen. We'll see how much my words are really worth after my death."

"Do you really think it will be that bad?" Sarutobi asked with concern in his voice. He couldn't imagine that the village would go against wish of its beloved Hokage.

Minato turned to the window before answering and looked over the village, "I honestly don't know and I wish I would be mistaken but I'd rather not take any chances in this situation. People are unpredictable after all. And with this many deaths around people may not act rationally."

"I'll do as you ask"

"Thank you", said Minato and started writng his last letter in his life adressed to his son. After he finished he handed it to Sarutobi and took off to the battle.

Sarutobi took the scroll from Minato and was about to speak but the young Hokage disappeared with flash of yellow light. He was running out of time. He put the scroll on one of the shelves and shunshined on his way too hospital. He just hoped that at least Kushina would survive this whole mess.

* * *

**-Konoha Hospital-**

Even though most of the village was deserted there were many people around the hospital. Wounded were brought in while medics tried to save as many lives as possible. Most of the them were civilians. Even though Kyuubi didn't enter the village, earthquakes and shockwaves did considerable damage to many buildings, wounding many people in effect. Shinobi were too busy repelling the beast to bring wounded here. Medic-nins on the battlefield had plenty of work so there were only few of them in the hospital. Normal doctors had to make do for the time being. The few ninjas present erected a barrier around the hospital to ensure the treated weren't harmed further. By far it had done its job but no one knew how much longer will it stand.

As Sarutobi entered the building nobody paid attention to him. Doctors and nurses were running in all directions trying to help as many people as possible. Finding a room where Kushina was would be almost impossible in this chaos. Fortunately Third knew exactly where he should go. Time was running short, so he tried to make haste but crowded and narrow corridors were not really the best place to achieve high speeds. He reached the room where the baby with his mother should be but found empty spot. _"Hasn't the operation finished yet, or did something else happened to her?"_, wondered Sarutobi looking for anyone who could give him some info.

"Where's Kushina Uzumaki?", he demanded from the first nurse he found.

"Who?", asked the nurse,

"Woman with red her from this room, she's supposed to give birth today"

"She's still in surgery, the birth is more complicated then we originally thought"

"Which room?"

"Operating theatre number 3", Sarutobi didn't wait any longer and took off in given direction, his thoughts were a total mess now. _"If the operation is that difficult then Kushina maybe in danger. God please don't take the boy both of his parents on the same day, have mercy."_, he prayed in his mind.

It took only a couple of minutes before medics exited with woman on a cart!! quickly going to another room. Right behind them went a nurse carrying a small bundle in her arms.

"What's going on?", the Third asked,

"The birth was very difficult, she also sustained some damage, we must operate immediately in order to save her life, Sarutobi-sama."

"And what about the baby?"

"Everything in order, now if you excuse me I'll take him to nursery."

"Unfortunately this is impossible, I must take him with me. It's a matter of an utmost importance."

"You cannot be serious Sarutobi-sama. It' a newborn child, he must be taken to the nursery, I can't allow you to take him.", she almost yelled at him for such a demand.

"I must insist, no more discussion. That's a direct order. Now return to your duties.", he cut her off. "Don't worry I'll return with him as soon as I can", he added more softly to comfort the nurse. A bit frightened but also curious what would former Hokage want with this child, the nurse was forced to comply. Sarutobi took the child and immediately left for the Hokage Tower.

* * *

**- 15 minutes later –**

Sarutobi was standing in underground chamber of Hokage Tower. He looked at prepared circle where he put small child. He still couldn't believe that something like this was taking place. A great man was sacrificing his life for the village and this little child was given burden which would mark it for rest of his life. Suddenly seals flashed with light and child started crying, room was bright as sun in the middle of summer for a couple of seconds and then everything was over the noises outside ended, the light died. Only cries of the boy filled the room. _"And so passes the great man"_, Sarutobi thought ,_"Don't worry, your legacy lives on and will go further then even you have imagined"_, he thought struck by sudden premonition, one couldn't live so long and not develop another sense in judging people's potential and he saw something in this boy. It started to intrigue him how this family could influence other people even from the earliest years. As he took the baby from the circle he noticed seal on his stomach. The child already had enormous amount energy, it wouldn't stay still no matter what as if it already wanted to go out and explore the world. Sarutobi leaved the Tower in direction of hospital with hope that Kushina survived the entire ordeal.

Now that everything was quiet more shinobi were brought to Hospital, the barrier was lowered and everything seemed to slowly settle down. As he entered the building and started walking towards nursery, wounded still arrived but not as many now that the battle has ended. Other shinobi were returning from the battlefield carrying wound and dead. In later days there would be state funeral but more important things were at hand. Everything was still a bit hectic but as things started to settle down, civilians were slowly returning to village to estimate the damage. On his way he met the very nurse that he took the child from. "As promised I brought the boy back as soon as I could", he said but then noticed a concerned look on woman's face. "Thank God you have returned, Kushina-san is dying and wants to hold her son, we must hurry", she said confirming Sarutobi's worst fears. "Lead the way". Now, even more then earlier he wished that Tsunade was here. But now all hope was lost and little child would be left without parents before it could even seen them. They went to the room where she was resting after the operation. Kushina looked very pale, almost white, even more visible due to her contrasting fiery red hair, her astounding beauty now similar to one of a ghost, beautiful and unreal at the same time. She looked peaceful when laying on a bed with her eyes closed, almost as if she was just resting after a long and tiring day. When he entered the room she opened her eyes and looked at a bundle in Sarutobi's arms.

"Can I see him?", she asked, her voice which was always full of life and energy now seemed empty and tired." Of course Kushina, it's your child after all", Sarutobi answered handling her gently the bundle, "Where's Minato?", she asked but only silence answered her, "I see", she said with a small smile. As soon as she took the boy, he calmed himself, stopped looking around him and focused on a woman who was holding him, "Poor Naruto, I wish I could stay with you longer but my time is short. I hope you'll grow into fine man, protect those precious to you and never give up so that you'll never regret anything in your life", she said to him, weakening with every word so the last were just a mere whisper. The boy looked at his mother almost as if he could understand each and every word and listened to her with attention. Then she noticed the seal on child's stomach, it was only barely visible and fading quickly until just clear skin was left, "So it has come to this", she whispered and turned to Sarutobi. "Please tell Akane to take care of him in our stead", as the old man nodded Kushina hugged the baby close to her and whispered her last words,

"Swift as water, free as wind

Whirlpool will always find its own stride"

As soon as she stopped breathing the little boy in her arms started crying. "Please take him to the nursery", the old man said to the nurse as he exited the room feeling 10 years older then he really was. _"This definitely was a long day. And what's worse it hasn't ended yet"_, he thought as he made his way towards the Hokage Tower to meet returning commanders and people of the council. _"I think I'd rather faced Kyubi then those harpies from the council"_, he thought on his way there. He promised that he will look after the boy and the first battle for his future was about to take place. What's worse he only knew about one ally there. He sighed as he wished that the day would end as fast as possible.

* * *

That's the end of first chapter. Thanks everyone for reading. I hope you liked it. All comments appreciated, especially constructive critic. This is my first fanfic and English is my second language so feel free to point out mistakes in the text so that I can correct and avoid them in next chapters.

Pairings are undecided yet so you can vote for one of them:

Naruto x Hinata

Naruto x Tenten

Naruto x Yugito

I'll try to update ASAP and make next chapter a bit longer but you may have to wait some time.


	2. And so it begins

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. This privilege goes to Masashi Kishimoto.

Thanks for all your comments and reviews. I really appreciate your advice. I also started a poll on my profile page so you can vote there. If you don't like the given pairings you can type your own in comments and I'll also take it into consideration. As for Yugito, regardless of the main pairing in the story I plan on introducing her a lot earlier. Also she'll be more or less the age as Naruto, maybe 2 or 3 years older.

So, here it is, the first chapter!

**Chapter 1: And so it begins**

* * *

**- Konohagakure no Sato, 10****th**** October, late evening -**

"_This definitely was a long day. And what's worse it hasn't ended yet"_, Sarutobi thought as he made his way towards the Hokage Tower to meet returning commanders and people of the council. He slowly approached it knowing that there is no point in hurrying. Nothing worse could happen anymore. The war with Iwa was at its stalemate as neither of the sides could deliver the finishing blow to the enemy. Now even more then earlier although casualties which Rock ninja suffered last year, during the Battle of Kanabi Bridge, were severe so enemy attack was just a remote possibility. In fact this event could be the very point that could trigger talks about ceasefire and maybe even peace. It wasn't a happy thought that it was only death of Minato that was something that would reduce the tension between the countries but he was now a Hokage and must do whatever it takes to ensure the village safety. He couldn't be sentimental about it as the war lasted long enough and took too many lives already. If there was a chance for a change then it would've to be taken. It seemed like some period of history was about to be closed. And another one would be opened. The question was what it would be like?

As he finally reached the Tower he saw many concerned looks from shinobi that have gathered in front of it. Many of them were asking questioins and demanding answers, everyone was wondering what really happened and how the Fourth really defeated Kyubi. As he approached the building a storm of questions was aimed at him. Sarutobi raised his hand to silence everyone, "Listen, I understand very well that a lot has occured during last few hours but we must not forget about the present. We are still at war, I want three full force patrols to start their work at dawn. As for all your questions, I will make announcement after the official funeral of all victims. That's all for now, you may go to attend other things for now. Akane wait, there are some things I need to talk to you about.", he said to tall, black haired women in battered Jounin vest. She turned around and regarded the Hokage curiously. "Not here, in my office" he said before entering the building as she followed him.

* * *

- Hokage's Office –

"What do you want from me Hokage-sama?", the woman asked as soon as the door to the office were closed behind them. She was sore from the battle and there were still things she needed to do so she was in no mood for courtesy. Sarutobi walked around the desk and sat in the chair behind it. _"I thought that I'd never have to sit here and make this kind of decisions again. Life truly can be brutal at times."_, he thought as he regarded person in front of him. Akane looked relaxed and composed as always, only the look in her eyes showed that something happened. Something that she wanted to put behind or better never believe in it. _"She addressed me as Hokage which meant that she already knows what had happened. Well, she was his strategic advisor for several years now and one of the best tacticians I have known in my entire life, so she probably suspected this outcome before we even realized seriousness of the situation."_, he continued to regard her and finally said, "You probably know why I have summoned you now."

"To be honest not really. I understand that the situation is still critical but we have at least few more days before anyone can take advantage of us. Assuming that anyone has any forces left to do so. The war exhausted all great nations, not only us. Now I'd like to visit Kushina if I may?"

"And that's the main problem Akane", he said and she suddenly started to realize what just how bad the situation was, "Kushina died during the childbirth. We must do something about this. I know that you were one of the closest people to his family and that's why I asked you."

While he was saying that Akane was struggling to comprehend the situation. She suddenly lost both of her best friends. She knew Minato almost all her life and she met Kushina shortly after leaving the academy. And now, the day that's supposed to be one of the happiest in their lives, the day when they should be celebrating birth of their first child, was turning out to be the worst in the most dreadful way. She leaned against one of the walls not trusting her legs to withstand the impact of the news.

"What will happen to the kid now?", she asked as she started to regain her composure.

"For the time being he must stay in the hospital but after that he probably will go to the orphanage.", Hokage replied.

"That won't be the best place for him, unless the entire thing with Kyubi will be kept secret", now that the first shock passed she was starting to think clearer, "how many people already know about it?"

"By far not many, but I do intend to inform the rest of the village about everything that had happened today."

"Excuse me?"

"All of the villagers should know what the Fourth had done. I will tell them alongside his last wish."

"You cannot be serious about this. They won't take this well. He'll be hated by them. Maybe not all but still there will be quite a bit of them that will. In my opinion the whole deal should be kept secret. The fewer people know about it the better.", she argued.

"No, they must know of the sacrifice that was made to ensure their safety. It's not like he is the demon, they will recognize the real him. Besides I believe they will honour the Fourth's last wish."

"Okay, I understand.", she surrendered, "Let's hope you're right. But still I assume that you'll keep his lineage secret, right?"

"Yes, uncovering it now would put him in too much danger and also I'd like you to promise me that you won't tell anyone, even him, about it."

"Even him?", she asked surprised at the condition.

"He will have to be ready to defend himself when he finds out about this. After all Minato had a lot of enemies. Striking at his only son would be perfect revenge for them even after his death.", he answered.

"And you presume that he would tell the entire world about it?", she smirked at old man concerns, "I know that Kushina liked to chatter but she knew when and how to keep a secret. And after all apart from us only Jiraiya, Tsunade and Rin knew about their relationship. Kakashi knew that Minato had someone but was never interested who it was. He was to caught up in being perfect shinobi up until recently."

"Maybe but he still will be a kid. Besides there may be a few people who could add two plus two. Giving them too much info is not a good idea."

"Don't worry, I won't tell him, or anyone else for that matter."

"Thank you. That would be all for now, I'll talk to you after the funeral about other matters."

"I suspected so. Well, I'll be off now. I'll go and try to see him before exhaustion gets better of me.", she said and turned around to exit the room, "Oh, you'll do wise if you keep an eye on Danzo, he was on the battlefield some time before sealing and probably suspects something.". After that she left leaving Hokage alone with his thoughts which now were in total disarray. _"And now to top all of it I'll have to deal with that war hawk again. Things just keep on getting better and better."_, he sighed as he started to plan how to deal with the situation before it got out of hand.

* * *

**- Two days later, top of the Hokage Tower -**

"Thank you for your arrival.", Hokage addressed the members of the council who appeared next to him. "I'll would like to make an announcement and I think that after it there will be a few things we will need to discuss". After this statement many people present started to wonder what's going on. They have arrived expecting that it'll be a simple speech to encourage villagers but it would seem that there was more to it. Still many people were uninterested in uncovering the secrets of that night. Especially Shizuma Satomi, Nobuhiro Chiyama and Isaki Tasahana, representatives of the civilians, were not in the least curious what was going on. The beast was gone and that was all they cared about. Homura and Koharu were actually a bit curious about what they haven't been informed earlier. Members of the council from the ninja clans Hyuuga and Uchiha as well as the chosen members from ninja community: Shiyama Nara and Atsuki Aburame were calm just as always but you could sense the tension among them. Danzo was also present, he took some serious injuries during the fight with Kyubi and it would seem that his days in active service were all over. He was also one of the few people who suspected what was going on. Sarutobi knew that he actively sought support for his cause during these past two days. With little information that was available he couldn't do much which was the reason why Sarutobi kept the whole affair secret all the time. Now that he had the majority of the cards in his hands he could take the action he wanted. The only uncertainty laid with the reaction of the people in front of him but he was hoping that at least it won't be openly hostile. That would be enough to keep him alive, at least for now. As they were standing there Akane came carrying small Naruto in her arms. She would be present during the entire thing as she was his godmother even though she was never part of the family but that was hardly possible. Families of both his parents passed away very early. From his mother's side at the very beginning of this accursed war and from his father's side gradually during it.

"Now, shall we begin?", Sarutobi asked and the councillors nodded in agreement. He stepped to edge of the roof and addressed assembled people. "Dear people of Konoha we have assembled here today to remember those that have died fighting Kyubi two days ago. I know that the pain is still fresh but we must stay strong. The war with Iwa is not finished yet. We still have many more trials in front of us and we must never forget that together we are strong.", he paused to clear his throat before he started to continue. "As all of you know, one of the fallen during the battle was the Fourth Hokage. Now I'd like to tell you about events of that night. Kyubi was not killed that night." This caused a few gasps from the crowd while most of the people looked terrified by the news. "There is no need to worry. Kyubi was defeated and sealed in baby boy that was born on that night. Now he is the guardian that will protect us all from the demon so that such a disaster won't happen again. The last wish of our late Hokage was respect the boy and treat him like a hero of the village. I give you Naruto Uzumaki." With that he took the boy from Akane and lifted him so that everyone could see him. The reaction of villagers was vastly different from what he expected. Of course he never thought that there will be a cheer for the boy but this eruption of hatred and anger was totally unexpected.

"Kill the demon."

"Burn him now"

"He mustn't live another minute."

"It's all his fault."

"He'll kill us all when he grows up."

"Finish him off."

These were just a few shouts that came from the crowd that gathered. Sarutobi was personally at loss. Even in the worst case scenario he didn't apprehend this kind of situation. It was then that Akane decided to intervene, "Do you all know what are you talking about! This boy was chosen by your beloved Hokage to be the guardian of the Kyubi till the end of his days. Do you not believe in him? He personally placed the seal upon the boy. Do you think that there could be any doubt that the seal will fail? Show at least a bit faith in what the Fourth had done and in the boy he entrusted with the burden.", she shouted to the people. This caused them to think about it a bit but the Third still could sense that they were not convinced by this reasoning.

"That all is true. The Fourth personally oversaw the entire process. There is no danger that the beast will free itself. The boy is just the guardian of the prison for the rest of his life, not the demon like some of you may have thought. We should all honour the Fourth last wish and treat the child like a hero fore keeping the beast at bay. ", that calmed down the people but Sarutobi could see that only few of them were believed in what was said. He'll have to think about something after the meeting with the council. He gave Naruto back to Akane and said, "I wish to thank everyone who has come here. Now let's commemorate the fallen ones with a minute of silence." After that the silence fell over the entire plaza as people remembered all those that sacrificed their lives so that they could be safe now. "Thank you". When all was said villagers started to leave to attend their duties and affairs. Sarutobi turned around to face members of the council and he immediately noticed the looks on their faces. Civilians as well as former team-mates of the Third were shocked by what was said, Danzo was already calculating what can be done with this information, Fugaku Uchiha was frowning like he was trying to solve a difficult problem at the moment, Aburame and Hyuuga members were calm just as always although you could sense that they were analyzing the entire situation, Shiyama Nara looked bored as always but spoke in calm voice, "You've got a lot of explaining to do Hokage-sama."

"Indeed I do", Sarutobi replied, "We shall talk in the council chamber. Akane join us as soon as you take him to the hospital."

"As you wish Hokage-sama", she answered.

Things were turning out to be worse then she imagined but maybe it was just temporary. After the villagers got over the entire shock of Kyubi attack they would think things over and perhaps change the view on him. But now she had things to do. _"I must get to the council as fast as I can. Better to keep an eye on things, else they may go out of control. And if that happens there's no telling what may go wrong. And there're at least few people would do much to see him dead."_, Akane thought as she made her way towards the hospital.

* * *

**- Hokage's Tower, Council Chamber, few minutes later –**

Akane made her way towards the chamber as she listened to the discussion that was taking place. No one tried to organise it in any manner and she smirked a little bit. _"So you're trying to buy some time until I get there, you old monkey, eh?"_, she thought as she approached the double doors leading to the chamber. With everyone arguing like that there was time for her to return from the hospital and take pert in discussion. She entered the chamber and looked around. She almost immediately noticed Danzo. Even though he wasn't part of the council there were still people that valued his opinion so his presence wasn't a total surprise. Surprising was the fact that he still could be on his legs with these injuries. _"Well, he'd never miss any kind of event where he can scheme to increase his influence over the village. The problem is what he has got in mind this time."_, she thought as she entered the room.

Sarutobi noticed as Akane entered the room and after several seconds he started to call for silence. After few attempts he managed to bring attention to himself and started explanation.

"I wish to start from the event that took place two days ago. We all know that Kyubi attacked the village almost without any warning. The beast couldn't be killed by any means that we here possessed so the Fourth used a very powerful sealing jutsu to seal the demon within a person. You all know about who I speak. Unfortunately the side effect of this jutsu is that it takes away the life of the user as well. The Fourth also expressed a wish that the child should be viewed as a hero for keeping the beast at bay from us. That is everything I have to say about that event.", he ended and waited for the questions from other members of the council.

"How strong is the seal? Is there any possibility that it will break?" asked Shiyama Nara.

"There's no danger in that area. This is the strongest seal that we know of. Such a possibility that it would break on its own or by Kyubi from inside doesn't exist."

"But it can be broken from outside?", asked Hiashi Hyuuga

"Yes, as any seal it can be broken from outside but, firstly it's not as easy as it would seem and secondly who and why would try to do such a thing? When the boy is old enough he will be informed about… his tenant so that he will be aware of the risks he faces.", responded Sarutobi

"So he will be…"

"What the hell are we thinking about?? The monster must be killed at once. There's no point in wondering about these things. Let's kill it right away and everything will end.", shouted Nobuhiro. Hokage was astounded that someone would venture such an opinion.

"What are you talking about Nobuhiro?", asked Shizuma, "You want kill a newborn child for something that was beyond his influence?"

"Actually that is the best course of action in these circumstances", Fugaku stated, "It would save us a lot of trouble in the future if he would be disposed of now. He is potentially dangerous to us all."

"Are you insane? Its just a kid. How can he be any danger to us?", Shizuma asked.

"We don't know anything about the seal. Maybe it's no as strong as you think it is. What if this kid becomes possessed by the demon and starts killing villagers?", Fugaku countered

"We all know about your dislike of the Fourth but he was a seal master and that's a fact. If he personally put the seal on the demon there's little doubt about how good it is.", reminded all present Akane, "There's no danger when it comes to the seal. The danger is that people will hate him and he will hate them back. Only then he may turn on the village."

"Killing the boy now would be a huge mistake", Danzo interjected, "He posses a lot of potential and if properly trained and used he can become very powerful weapon for us. This way he will not bring any misfortune and will be a huge asset of Konoha."

"You want to turn him into a weapon? That's even worse scenario then killing him. And how will you control him?" asked Homura

"A weapon can be used by you or against you depending which hand holds it", added Atsuki Aburame.

"I agree. Turning the boy into a weapon is not an option. That would bring only troubles in the long run for the village. We do not need mindless killers with no conscience.", summed up Sarutobi, "It looks like we have two options to choose from. Either we kill the boy or leave him alive, unless someone has any other suggestions?" No one had anything to add and an awkward silence settled across the room. Everyone was wondering about the choice they were about to make. Sarutobi took a glance at Akane. She looked as clam as ever but he knew that if the decision was unfavourable then she would do whatever it took to keep the boy safe. Even if it meant escaping from the village with him and becoming a missing nin. "I think it's about time we made our decision", he decided that there was no sense in delaying it any further. _"Then this is it. Sink or swim"_.

"Who is in favour of killing the boy?" he asked and looked over the people sitting at the table. Immediately Fugaku Uchiha and Nobuhiro Chiyama raised their hands and were joined by Homura, Koharu and Isaki Tasahana.

"And who's against it?" with a relief he noticed that all remaining members supported his decision. Hiashi and Atsuki saw no reason in killing the boy. Already enough people have suffered in the attack and there was no reason in adding new ones to the list. Shiyama thought of the entire meeting too troublesome. The kid wasn't guilty of anything so what was the point of punishing him. Shizuma found it at least distasteful to kill someone for something he had no control over let alone a newborn baby. They all raised their hands and along with Hokage were able to push through their resolution. "Well now that we have this issue out of the way there's one more thing I must address", he started after everyone processed what happened, "I will enact a law that no one is to mention the fact that Kyubi is sealed within the boy under death sentence unless speaking with someone who already knows about it."

"WHAT? You can't be serious about it Hokage-sama! The council will never approve of such a decision!" shouted Nobuhiro

"Actually the council doesn't have to approve of it. It lays within Hokage's rights to enact and cancel the laws in the village. You can try to overrule it but you must have an unanimous vote to do so", Akane said in her usual calm and matter-of-fact tone unnerving her speaker, "You think you can pull it off?"

Nobuhiro glanced around the room and noticed annoyed look on the Fugaku Uchiha's face. He clearly was thinking the same thing but couldn't do anything about it. He was sure that at least two or three people wouldn't follow his lead and vetoing the law wouldn't work. He clenched his fists as he couldn't do anything in this situation. Then the most surprising voice supported Akane, "That's a wise decision. If the boy is to survive the fewer people know about it the better" Danzo voiced his opinion surprising many people in the room. Akane wasn't surprised about it at all, _"You think you will be able to recruit him to your Root program later on if he survives his childhood and starts learning to be a ninja. You can dream about it. As long as I'm alive you can only dream about it. I won't allow Minato's son to become merciless murderer without any feelings, of that you can be sure."_

"Now that everything is clear the meeting is over. I will have ANBU declare my decision tomorrow to all villagers. You can go now." People started going out to attend their own affairs. First Nara, Hyuuga and Aburame representatives exited the room. They had to get back to their clans and prepare for next missions that would come soon. They were followed by civilian members as they went out to get back to their homes. Homura and Koharu lingered a bit longer as if wanted to ask something but decided against it and left saying, "We hope you've taken the right decision". Fugaku Uchiha frowned like he was analyzing the entire situation and left without saying a word but clearly unhappy about the outcome of the meeting. The last to leave the chamber was Danzo which wasn't surprising considering the damage that he suffered during the attack. It would take weeks if not months for him to walk normally and he could forget about getting back to active service. When finally everyone exited Hokage addressed the woman that stayed at his side, "Now Akane I have a mission for you. I hate to send you right away but this cannot wait."

"I thought that this would happen. Don't worry I will set out in two days. This will allow the news to travel far enough so they won't think it's an ambush", she responded.

"I see you already have it all planned", Sarutobi smiled under his nose, "That's good. I just do hope it doesn't take too long for you to finish this one."

"You can never be sure about it. Maybe it will few weeks and maybe few months or years. It's a delicate thing after all. Well I'll better get ready for it. If you excuse me Hokage-sama."

"Yes, of course. And good luck.", he said as she exited the room. _"Now back to the office and this blasted paperwork. How I hate it. God I could use a pipe at the moment."_, he thought as he got up and went towards his office.

* * *

**- Meanwhile, outside, on the way to Uchiha Compound -**

Fugaku Uchiha was on his way towards his family compound. After he exited the Hokage Tower two other members of his clan joined him and one of them asked him, "How was it Fugaku-sama?"

"The brat will live for now. That was to be expected but still it was a close call for Hokage."

"Shouldn't we get rid of him now that the security will be weak?" asked the second person.

"That is not necessary. The brat won't matter in the end. Now we must concentrate on more important matters at hand. The Kyubi attack left us dangerously overextended. We must recall some less important operations. The only good thing is that at least that blasted Fourth is dead. Without him in the way everything will be a lot easier."

"Hai, Fugaku-sama", both of them nodded and followed him back to the compound.

Fugaku thought back to the events of the past few days. Kyubi attack was a total surprise and some people of his clan died before they could take shelter or during the fight with the beast. Now was the time to heal the wounds and one little brat was not something he should bother with. After all it won't matter if he dies now or in few years. Only one thing bothered him. Before the attack were circulating rumours that the Fourth had a lover. Now finding out whether there were true or not would be impossible. Everyone would have already forgotten such a trivial thing. And that thing mattered. He didn't just disliked Minato Namikaze. He hated him. He came from nameless family with no support whatsoever and reached the top. The top which should have belonged to his clan. And he would do much to get at him. But now it was over, he met his end and without him everything would be so much easier. Oh yes it would. He entered the clan possession and turned towards his home. He dismissed his two subordinates as he felt safe within the family walls. He checked on his two sons before he went to rest after a very long day.

* * *

**- At the same time, under the Hokage's Tower -**

Danzo entered the underground network of tunnels. The underground consisted of multiple tunnels, hidden passages, natural caverns, sewers and canalization system all linked throughout the entire Konoha. One could use it to travel the entire city without being noticed. In one of the bigger chambers of the underground city was located one of the training bases of the Root. When Danzo arrived one of his lieutenants approached him. "Any news from the meeting Danzo-sama?"

"Yes, as we supposed the boy is a Jinchuriki. But as for now those fools from the council won't allow us to train him."

"Should we take here by force?"

"No, anything that stands out too much will bring too much attention to us. We still have several years in front of us during which we can convince several people to our side."

"Hai, Danzo-sama."

"Any news on the Uchiha?"

"Nothing new. They're recuperating just like the rest of the village. Their casualties are similar to other clans in the village. There was no suspicious activities during the past few days."

"Good, continue to carefully observe them. Immediately report to me when you learn something about their operations. Leave the issue of the Jinchuriki in peace for now. We'll take care of it when the time comes. Dismissed."

"Hai", the masked person disappeared in a puff of smoke and Danzo went back to the hospital. His injuries were severe enough to force him to stay in hospital for at least few weeks, but now that everything was taken care of he could allow himself that luxury. At least as long as the Uchiha weren't plotting anything.

* * *

**- 6 years later, Konoha Market District -**

Naruto was walking on the street on the bright sunny day. He decided that it was a good day for some small shopping. His clothe were starting to get too small for him so he needed something new. _"Maybe this time I'll manage to buy something with less orange."_, he thought as he made his way through the streets. He still couldn't understand why some villagers treated him like a disease. They wouldn't sell him anything, or let his kids to play with him. Even though no one beat him he still felt sad for being treated like that when he didn't do anything. Others would just simply ignore him all the time not even looking at him when he talked to them. He just couldn't understand it. He went into one of the shops where he could at least buy something. He looked through the wares and noticed few nice T-shirts and went to the counter. When the shopkeeper noticed him he frowned and looked at what he was holding.

"How much for these?", Naruto asked approaching the man

"700 ryo each", said the shopkeeper

"How much?"

"I said 700"

"But you sold it to that lady for only 450"

"Well, for you it's 700"

"Why should I pay more then others?"

"Because you're a de… I mean because I said so. Take it or leave it boy.", the shopkeeper managed to avoid a serious mistake but Naruto still noticed that something was off.

"That's not fair. Why others can pay less and I must pay more. We're all equal now, aren't we", he still tried to argue but this remark somehow angered the shopkeeper. He took the boy and dragged him towards the exit.

"Do NOT ever compare me to the likes of you. Now get the hell out of my store before I call Police to take you.", with that said he pushed him out of the store. Naruto turned around and stuck his tongue out but was completely ignored. It looked like no one on the street noticed what had just happened. _"Why do people always treat me like an air or sometimes even worse. I'm too a human. But I'll make them notice me. If they won't notice me for being a good boy. Then I have just the thing for them."_, he thought to himself as he made his way towards his apartment. The on looking ANBU with dog mask couldn't help but wonder when the scowl on the boy's face turned into rather evilly looking smirk. He was up to something and it would be better to stay on your toes this night.

* * *

**- Later that night -**

Naruto woke up and noticed that it was still dark outside. He set up his clock for 4.30 so he would have enough time to set the entire thing up. He gathered everything and made his way towards the shop. He stopped several times on the way feeling like someone was watching him but he couldn't find anyone so he shrugged it off as just being nervous. After all he would be pulling his first prank. Up till now he tried to act the way everyone else had but because it didn't have any results he decided to do something unexpected. When he reached the shop he went towards the rear entrance. The door were locked and he didn't have enough experience to pick the lock but fortunately the shopkeeper forgot to close the small window on the right. Naruto somehow managed to crawl inside and immediately started working.

About 8 o'clock as the shopkeeper made his way towards his shop he hummed to himself. This was a nice day and after the lesson he gave to the brat the day before he was sure that he wouldn't be seeing him again. He entered the storage room and went to main part of the shop when he suddenly slipped on something. He tried to get up but again slipped on the floor. Then he noticed that there was oil spilt on the floor. He crawled towards the door and grabbed them to get up and he suddenly noticed that something stuck to his hand. He looked and saw a piece of cloth wet with glue. He tried to get rid of it but it was constantly sticking to his hands. As he went to the sink he heard someone giggle but saw no one and ignored it. He washed his hands but when tried to dry them he saw that the entire towel was dyed in purple paint which now adorned his hands. Just then someone erupted with laughter and the shopkeeper saw Naruto who was laughing when he saw the entire situation.

"You brat! What have you done! Just wait till I get you in my hands! You'll be sorry." Naruto just stuck his tongue out and ran away still laughing but was caught soon after by two chunin who happened to be on guard duty that day.

"Now you'll be sorry for what you've done", the shopkeeper said and was about to start his punishment when Hokage arrived at the scene. He was taking a morning stroll when he happened to be passing by when he noticed the commotion.

"What's going on here?", he asked as he approached the scene.

"Hokage-sama, this little brat destroyed my shop", complained the shopkeeper.

"I didn't do it. I just played a little prank on him", countered Naruto

"Watch your tone squirt! You're talking to Hokage.", said the shopkeeper

"How many of the wares were destroyed?", Sarutobi asked the man

"I don't know exactly…"

"Well then please check while I have a little talk with Naruto here."

"Of course Hokaga-sama, right away.", replied the shopkeeper and returned to his shop.

Hokage made a small sign and moment later ANBU with a dog mask appeared at his side.

"Kakashi, tell me what really happened here", he asked in a small voice.

"Well, it looks like Naruto decided to pay back for something that happened earlier and played a little prank on this guy."

"And you decided to do nothing about it?"

"It wasn't anything dangerous. Besides it was kind of fun to see the guy squirm around the room.", replied ANBU. Hokage just sighed as he looked at the young boy in front of him. The shopkeeper returned a moment later with a confused look on his face. "Well… nothing was destroyed but the entire storage room is mess and I must open the shop in few minutes!"

"In that case.", Sarutobi cleared his throat and said, "Naruto you are to clean the mess you've done and the entire shop as the punishment. After that come to my office because we need to talk about your behaviour." Naruto pouted at the verdict but said nothing and went into the shop. The shopkeeper bowed to the Hokage and followed the boy to make sure there are no more traps set inside. Hokage sighed again and headed to the tower for his daily struggle with never ending paperwork.

* * *

**- 2 hours later, Hokage Tower -**

Naruto entered Hokage's office. That nasty shopkeeper got him to wash the entire shop twice. And that when he didn't even touch anything there. Well still it was better then being beaten so he didn't complain. Besides it was fun to watch what he tried do to get out of that patch of oil he set. As he entered the office he saw Sarutobi sitting in his desk.

"Hey Old Man, what did you wanted to talk to me about?", he started.

"Naruto, you know who I am so why don't you at least try to address me properly?", Sarutobi asked but without annoyance or anger in voice.

"Well, you're the oldest person I know or have seen in the street so you're an Old Man.", Naruto replied

"Oh trust me, there are older people then me."

"So they are Very Old People then, but still I haven't met yet", Naruto seemed unfazed by that statement and Hokage chuckled a bit.

"As for the reason I called you now. Why did you do it?"

"This little experiment?", Sarutobi nodded and frowned hearing that the boy called it an experiment, "Well, I thought it could be fun." He just said and flashed his wide smile.

"Do you really have nothing better to do?"

"Not really, sitting at home is boring and other children doesn't want to play with me. So I figured that this could be interesting", Naruto explained and looked down with sad look on his face.

"Well, next year I planned on enrolling you to Ninja Academy so you'll have something better to do.", Sarutobi said to lighten a bit boy's mood.

"Really that would be awesome. Can I really become ninja?", Naruto asked excited at the prospect.

"Really."

"Wow, that's great. But I don't know that much about shinobi. Won't they throw me out for it?"

"Don't worry they won't. But if you're so concerned about it I can lend you a few books about shinobi. You can read right?

"A little bit, haven't got much practice with it."

"Then here. These two are quite easy ones.", Sarutobi said handling him two small books. Naruto looked at them and read the titles, "Int…rodu…ction to Shin…obi Life"

"Basic Ru…les and Pri…nci…ples of Combat"

"Not bad, Naruto. But you should try to learn more."

"Okay Old Man. I'll try. And I have one question to you."

"Yes, Naruto?", Sarutobi was genuinely intrigued what the boy wanted from him.

"Why do people respect you so much? They always bow to you and say -sama at the end. Why they do such things?", Naruto wanted to ask this question for some time now and eagerly awaited for the answer.

"That's because I'm the Hokage, Naruto. I'm taking care of the village and people respect me for it. Just like they did the previous Hokages", old man explained to the young boy in front of him.

"And all of them well as respected as you are?"

"Some maybe even more."

"Okay, the it's decided. In the future I'll become a Hokage and people will start respecting me."

"That's a nice dream Naruto. I do hope you can achieve it.", he said smiling at the boy.

"Thanks Old Man. I'll be going then. See ya.", Naruto got up and turned to the doors.

"Oh and Naruto, maybe you could find yourself a hobby of some sort. This could help you spend some time in more interesting way.", said Sarutobi

"Okay, Old Man I'll think about it", he said with a glint in his eye and exited the room.

"_I don't like it. I've seen that glint way too many times in Kushina eyes. And that doesn't bode well. It never did."_, Sarutobi thought as he looked at the boy from his office's window.

* * *

**- 2 days later, Hokage's Office -**

Sarutobi was waiting for Kakashi who was late as usually. He wondered what kind of ridiculous excuse will he have this time. As he wondered white haired Jounin entered the room. "Excuse me for the delay Hokage-sama but I happen to come across two chunin chasing blond bag of energy and it was too interesting too resist.", he said and Hokage became suddenly interested

"Really? And why was it so interesting?", he asked

"Well it took full 15 minutes to get. He really can run quite fast for a boy his age. And has some quite interesting ideas.", the Jounin answered.

"And why were they chasing him in the first place?"

"I didn't really get it but it was something about painting someone or something like that."

"I see. It looks like he at least took my advice about having a hobby top his heart."

"It does look like it.", white haired man chuckled under his nose, "And it does look like the things just got more interesting in the village."

"Indeed. Now about your first Genin squad…"

* * *

A/N:

That's the end of the first chapter. Wow, I didn't think I would write this much but it somehow turned like this. Now just a few things I think you'd like to know.

Konoha political system I: The Council

I designed council to consist of three parts. First are the heritable positions of most influential Konoha clans. At first there were three such seats, but as the Senju clan became more and more dispersed among the villagers and their seat became electoral.  
Current Seats: Fugaku Uchiha, Hiashi Hyuuga

Second part are electoral seats chosen from ninja community. Currently there are four seats but as I explained above there were only three in the past.  
Current Seats: Homura Mitakado, Koharu Utatane, Shiyama Nara, Atsuki Aburame

Third part are electoral seats chosen from the civilians. They are in minority as this is after all ninja village. There are also three of them.  
Current Seats: Shizuma Satomi, Nobuhiro Chiyama, Isaki Tasahana

Hokage is also part of the council but he is designated by his predecessor and not elected and he presides the meetings of the council. Generally the council assembles the decide about very important matters letting the Hokage govern daily affairs of the village. In order to take a decision the council needs at least 50% votes in favour of the solution with Hokage vote being a decisive one. Council can also overthrow a Hokage's law but only by an unanimous vote with more then 2/3 members present. People from outside of the council can be invited to the meetings in form of advisors. Hokage can also bring his own advisors if he/she feels like it. They can voice their opinions but they do not posses the right to vote.

* * *

Some review notes:

This is only slightly AU so sorry _**Miss. Patty**_ but no can do although I don't plan on having the villagers constantly beating him to a near death state.

And _**Simsen**_ this is categorized as adventure so I won't concentrate on couples but I think they are nice addition.

I really welcome all your comments and advice.


	3. Life and trials of Naruto Uzumaki

Sorry everyone for the huge delay but this half of the year was really crazy for me so I had to put this off a bit. But I'm finally back with a new chapter so please enjoy! I also changed the summary a bit so it better fits the story.

Disclaimer: Even though some time passed from my last update I still don't own Naruto.

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**Chapter 2: Life and trials of Naruto Uzumaki**

**- Hokage Tower, someday in April -**

Naruto was sitting in Hokage's office waiting for the Old Man as he was calling him. It looked like the Hokage had to do something outside his office this day so Naruto was waiting alone. Secretary reluctantly let him inside, but since it wasn't first time and she thought that he won't try anything. Not that Naruto wasn't considering playing some kind of prank. But Old Man was always nice to him so he didn't want to change that. Besides he didn't get his title for nothing and Naruto saw what shinobi could do. He never managed to get away from them for more than 10 minutes. And that was when he had a head start. And a big one at that. No, trying something like this on Hokage won't work. Still he could look around the office though. The books he borrowed were quite interesting. When he was still in the orphanage they taught them how to read even if it was only basics. Later he was given his own apartment so he lived on his own. He never knew why this happened. Not that he was complaining or anything but in the orphanage he at least wasn't alone. It wasn't that he got on well with everyone but even the caretakers couldn't keep all other kids away from him all the time. Then even if they didn't other kids were always reluctant to play with him. He did also notice that others were treated better then him but at least there was someone that took care of him, if reluctantly. Now he was on his own and somehow people were nastier than earlier. It never got past the point of ever present glares, nasty remarks and insults or some "accidental" elbow or push. He didn't know why but it hurt. Even more because he was completely unaware why it was happening. He never did anything to anyone. Hell, most of them he saw for the first time in his life. Well, except the ones he played pranks on. Still they were nasty to him before he played pranks on them. But it wasn't anything serious. Apart from that one incident with paint. And maybe those two traps with eggs that gone bad. And he didn't mean to cause that accident when he put those bugs in the back of that restaurant. That and the number with extinguishers got him in the most trouble so far. _"Still, it was worth it"_, Naruto thought as he was browsing through titles on the shelves that he could see. He reached the shelf that contained a lot of different scrolls and decided to take a look at them. He reached for a particularly big one when the door opened.

At that moment Hokage came into the office and saw as Naruto was reaching for the Forbidden Scroll. "I hope you're not trying to steal it now, are you? Naruto?" he asked.

"What? Of course not. I was… looking. Yeah, just looking.", Naruto answered hastily.

"Of course you were.", Sarutobi chuckled lightly under his nose. "But you wouldn't understand much of it anyway."

"Why not? I can read already pretty well."

"That's because it's very difficult text to read. Even some adults don't understand it.", Sarutobi said while Naruto was looking at the scroll. "Naruto" he said to catch young man's attention, "Do you know why I called you here today?"

"I have no idea Old Man. I didn't do anything in the last few days. Honestly!"

"Oh? And what about the incident in the East District yesterday morning?"

"That wasn't my fault!", Naruto protested,"That guy broke all those bottles himself when he was running."

"And why was he running in the first place? Maybe you could enlighten me? The shopkeeper was less then clear when it came to reason of the incident.", Sarutobi asked in calm tone and looked at Naruto who suddenly became surprisingly silent. Hokage raised an eyebrow and Naruto finally decided to speak.

"Well, maybe I did a little prank. But it was harmless."

"Not so harmless judging by the effects of it. What did you exactly do?"

"It was a foggy morning so I thought that playing a little prank may lighten my mood. I took a sheet from my bed and pretended to be a ghost in that shop. It's not my fault the shopkeeper freaked out so much that he almost trashed the entire store.", Naruto pouted and sat in one of the chairs. Sarutobi sighed deeply as he considered the entire accident. _"I must punish him somehow but this time damage he did is quite big. He most certainly cannot afford to pay for it at once and I cannot use his father's account to cover the loses. And his dole is not very high."_

"Naruto, you'll have to cover the cost of broken items in the shop. A certain amount of money will be deducted from your dole until you pay the entire debt back.", that way he could at least try to placate the shopkeeper and teach Naruto a lesson. Though he started to doubt that these "lessons" have any effect on a young boy. Not that his pranks were particularly harmful, but that didn't bring him popularity in the village. Sarutobi looked at the boy in front of him and noticed that he wanted to say something but couldn't decide whether he should do so or not. _"That is unusual. He normally has no problems with voicing his thoughts. If anything he always voiced them to loud."_

"You wanted to say something Naruto?", Sarutobi asked.

"Well, I was wondering if I could work some of this in the shop? That would shorten the time needed to pay the debt. And could you ask about it for me?"

"I'm sure it can be arranged, but why…", Sarutobi stopped in the middle of sentence. _"I see. He's worried that if he asks he would be denied. But why does he want to end it faster?"_

"Why do you want to work there?", he finished the sentence.

"I start the academy next month so I thought that I should finish all my pranks by then. And that would give me something to do for that time. And can I borrow some more books? The last ones were not so bad.", Naruto answered with an embarrassed smile.

"Sure, you can. But only from the shelf next to the entrance. The rest is still to difficult for you. And I'll talk with the shopkeeper about your request. Now you can go. I have an important meeting in a moment."

"Okay, see you next time Old Man.", Naruto said as he picked two books from the shelf and exited the room.

"_I honestly pray that next time won't be because of some prank. You've caused enough trouble in the last two months."_, Sarutobi thought as he started to prepare for his next meeting. And this one was on a totally different level.

**

* * *

**

**- At the same time, corridor outside the Hokage's Office -**

Fugaku Uchiha was on his way to Hokage's office when he noticed Naruto on the corridor walking in the opposite direction. That was intriguing as the boy was rarely seen in this place. He was on good terms with the Hokage but had little reason to come here. Maybe it had something to do with the last prank he played in the East District. During the last years he paid little attention to little brat. Most of his pranks were just the annoying sort. It wasn't anything serious let alone dangerous but some villagers still demanded some serious punishments. His own police was called only few times. Rather than called you should say they happened to be closer to the "crime scene" than other shinobi. Normally ninja passing by or some chunnin on the guard duty were more than enough deal with the problem. In fact he expected something more from the demon container. Some childish pranks and harmless traps were not something child with this kind of power should be doing. It seemed like the whole jinchuriki stuff was overestimated. Nothing good would come from a kid like that. Unlike his older son who already was the pride of the clan. Yes he has shown his skills from very young age. Even his younger son was more of use then this… thing. Sasuke at least was interested in shinobi training. For now it wasn't more then some physical training and weapon basics but still he would've some edge when he started the academy. Itachi on the other hand was completely different matter. A born genius, one that already surpassed all other clansmen. But recently something began to change, he started to get colder and colder by the day. He was also incredibly hard to read. That could be result of his role as an ANBU captain. But it could also mean something more dangerous. He would need to look into the matter later. Right now more important matters were at hand. With the changes that part of the advisors from the council wanted to implement his clan could lose its position within the village. That couldn't be allowed to happen. They founded the village. They protected it from the very beginning. Without them it would have never been anything more than some sort of third rate backwater. No, he would be damned before he let his clan be pushed to the side and forgotten. Fugaku stopped for a moment and composed himself. There will be time for this later. Right now the Hokage waited. And you didn't make Hokage wait. Not when so much was at stake.

**

* * *

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**- At the same time, outside the Hokage Tower -**

Hiashi Hyuuga was currently walking with his older daughter home from the hospital where his wife was after giving birth to his second child. Things were looking good and the doctors assured him that everything was in order. He wasn't so sure himself since she stayed in the hospital longer then last time but he wasn't a doctor so he didn't argue with them. While he was walking he wondered about things that were happening in the village. The last few years were prosperous for the village and it was well on its way to recovery from the Third Great Ninja War and Kyubi attack. After the end of the war there were many problems mainly connected with workforce but as the time went by it seemed that the situation has stabilized. But now it seemed that something was in the air again. The fact that the council was called twice in the recent months was something that didn't happen for some time already. The tensions were running high in the council with the Uchiha and the civilians on one side and senior advisers on the other. Still everything was in order in the moment and hopefully this matter would be resolved quickly. Sitting in the council was one of the worst possible ways to waste time in his opinion. With the little power that the council was given it wasn't much more then a collective court that dealt with some more serious crimes and advised Hokage about foreign affairs. Fortunately the council wasn't bothered with those silly requests concerning the Kyubi brat. Several years ago that was a regular point during the meetings. It seemed that when the villagers realized that Hokage wouldn't lift a finger against him they thought that at least council will do something about it. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, considering that during first years after the sealing not everybody from the ninja side of the council was capable of attending the meets, this matter was beyond their competence area.

"_Speak of the devil"_, Hiashi thought as he passed by the Hokage Tower and saw the blonde kid walking out of its gates. Speaking about him was always a touchy subject in the Hyuuga household. After the council meeting six years ago several elders expressed opinion about getting rid of the problem, to "be on the safe side" as they phrased it. After much discussion the clan decided to accept the wait and see attitude. Now that several years passed by the entire matter calmed down a little but as Hiashi suspected that at least a couple of elders never forgot about it. They were just waiting taking their time to evaluate the kid and prepare suitable strategy. The pranks that blonde boy frequently pulled off didn't do much to earn him popularity. And in a month time he'd probably start the shinobi academy course like other kids of his age. Even though he lacked the family Sarutobi favoured the kid enough to at least grant him a possibility to enter Academy and train. The problem would be what would happen afterwards. The academy was not all that easy to pass and Naruto would have to face more problems than your average student. But only time would tell he would overcome these obstacles.

Hinata was walking beside her father after visiting the hospital. She was excited that she would have a younger sister but also wanted her mother to return to the estate as fast as she possible. With her absent it looked like all the warmth disappeared from the house. She noticed that her father became more reserved since the death of his brother and was very worried about this change. The event from three years ago still heavily weighed on her conscience. While she was aware that she couldn't have done anything to prevent it, she could not forget that her uncle paid the price for what her father had done to save her. What's more her cousin also started behaving strangely from that moment. Now that he was in the academy she was seeing him not so often but even before that he was avoiding her. Hinata was wondering what was going on when she noticed a young blonde boy walking on the street. Everyone was standing away from him and giving nasty glares in his direction. The boy was reading something and didn't notice anything. Or maybe just wasn't paying attention. As he was passing by, few people were whispering to each other and went suddenly silent when he was near them. It looked like there was something that the villagers were hiding something from the boy. That had piqued Hinata's interest as it was very unique kind of behaviour. She was used to polite and almost respectful responses from the civilians. From what she saw on the street it was also very unusual kind of behaviour between the civilians. A glare or insult from time to time did happen but for the whole street to aim it at a single boy who wasn't even older than she was certainly not something normal. She gathered her courage and asked.

"Father who is this boy? And why is everyone looking so scared of him?"

"Who are you talking about?", Hiashi asked and frowned at the question. He had an idea about who his daughter is speaking but wanted confirmation.

"That blonde boy who was reading a book just a minute ago."

While perceptiveness was something that was expected from every member of the Hyuuga clan sometimes it could be also a real pain. Like now. What should he do with such a question, it's not like he could tell her the truth. For the time being dismissal would be the best thing to do. "It's no one important; don't pay any attention to him. More important is that you'll start your academy training soon. You know what is expected from you as the heiress to the Hyuuga clan."

"Yes, father. I will do my best.", responded Hinata. She took one last look at the boy before concentrating on the road ahead of her. It would be nice to know more the boy but she probably wouldn't meet him anymore. She was starting the Academy next month and had to concentrate on that first. She was already feeling the pressure from what was expected from her. Even more so after what Neji presented in the academy during the last year. She was starting to wonder whether she would be capable of fulfilling their expectations.

**

* * *

**

**- One month later, Konoha Ninja Academy -**

Naruto was walking with a smile towards the group of buildings in which Ninja Academy was placed. Today was the first day of his training and he was looking forward to the things he would do during this time. Maybe he would even make some friends over there. _"Now that would be awesome"_, he thought. As he was getting near the building he noticed that already a lot of people were gathered there. A lot of people thought that being a shinobi is really good job so there were always quite a lot of children that wanted to join. When he entered the yard in front of the school he was given his usual share of glares and disdain. He looked towards the ground and tried to ignore it but it still came hard for him. He noticed that everyone came with at least one parent. Suddenly he felt awfully lonely. He spotted a swing near a tree that nobody was standing beside and decided to wait over there. He didn't have any chances of talking to anyone as long as parents were standing here. After he got his own apartment he went several times around the district to get to know his surroundings. When he saw kids playing on the playground he decided to join them. At first it wasn't that bad. Other kids were cautious around him but after few minutes they managed to break the ice and started playing. Until some adults came. Then everything started. The moment they saw him, they started to take kids away from him and calling "monster". The next day no one wanted to go anywhere near him anymore. In the East District almost everyone knew about him so it was impossible to make any friends. But here were kids from all over the Konoha so maybe he would make some friends. But not until the adults were gone. He saw that few shinobi came out of the building and started organising children so he left his place beside the swing to join them.

Sarutobi made his way towards the Academy to welcome the intake of future shinobi. It was a welcomed distraction from the endless paperwork and stuffy office. He was also curious who new would join the academy this year. Well, this time he knew at least one person which would without doubt leave a very strong impact on the Academy. Whether it would be positive or not remained to be seen. He hasn't heard about Naruto in the last month and was rather pleased that the young boy concentrated on something useful rather than on pranks. It was a good change but the problem was if it was stable or only temporary. He hoped that his time in the Academy will help him get at least a bit of acceptance that the boy desired so much but he also knew that ninja training was not an easy way to follow. Judging by who his parents were he shouldn't have too many problems. But you never knew how the things would work out with genetics. The coming months would probably give an answer to many questions. All what was left now was to wait. When he entered the yard he already saw all the children standing neatly in rows and waiting for him. He smiled as he went on and glanced at the crowd. He could already see that there were quite a lot of interesting kids joining the Academy this year. He noticed Akimichi and Aburame kids due to their rather noticeable traits. Next to the Akimichi stood a boy that was looking at the clouds. _"Most definitely a Nara. The school hasn't begun yet and he already is bored. He probably has already beaten his father's record in this area."_. In another part of the group stood a boy with Inuzuka's red facial markings. Not far from him a boy with black hair and black eyes in dark blue blouse with very distinctive symbol on his back was looking very eager to get this thing over with, probably so he could start his training. _"Younger of the Fugaku's sons is joining the class? The entire clan is probably extremely excited over it."_ As he glanced once again he noticed Yamanaka girl standing chatting and giggling with a girl with pink hair. And at the end of the whole group stood small girl with black-blue hair and white eyes which marked her as Hyuuga. Of course finding Naruto with his… "unique" taste in colours and unruly gold blonde hair wasn't difficult at all. That was quite a diverse group and that coupled with some kids from civilian families marked this class as exceptionally promising. _"It's time to start the speech."_, Sarutobi thought and officially started next year in the Konoha Ninja Academy. "I wish to welcome you all to this place…"

**

* * *

**

**- Few hours later, front yard of Konoha Academy -**

Naruto sat on the swing and watched as other kids were picked up by their parents from the Academy. It looked like everything was against him in this world. First when he tried to talk to other kids they all turned around or said that they weren't allowed to talk to him. Then when the classes finally began he was stuck with being the first one to do the chores even though his surname began with "u". Then somehow so many things were to do around the class as if everything was waiting for him. And now he was given and extra task to do at home. And that was when he honestly didn't do anything. It's not like he could be talking to anyone. The boy on his left was acting as if he was scared of him and the one on the right was sleeping all the time. Even when the teachers were checking who was present he only raised his hand and murmured something under his nose. Honestly why did they only punish him? It was unfair. _"Whatever, it's not the time for this. Now back home to eat something. Tomorrow is another day and he will give it all so he will be the best. My class isn't so bad after all. The boy I sat with today seemed fine. Aside from sleeping most of the time. And there was this fat boy, what was his name again? Choshi? Chouni? Hmn… Chouji! Yeah that's it, Chouji. Maybe I shouldn't call him fat. After all I want to get along with them. Besides he isn't that fat… yet. A word for it would be… chubby. Yeah that will do."_ When he got up and went out of the school grounds he didn't notice a pair of eyes that were following him from the shadows. The eyes lingered for a moment on a retreating figure and disappeared the moment that they lost the boy in the crowd that was filling the street at this time of day.

The person then went to the teacher's room were every teacher was coming after the day to sum up all the classes and talk about promising students, especially when the new year started. Now several teachers were having a lively discussion about new students and what they thought about them.

"We certainly have some very promising students this year. I'm especially looking forward to see what the Uchiha kid can do."

"His brother was an outstanding student; do you think we'll see something like that again?"

"I don't know. Having such high expectations from him may prove to be detrimental to him."

"You're right but still it'd be good to keep an eye on him. After all he is an Uchiha."

"I agree. That'd be the best."

"And what do you think about the Hyuuga girl? She doesn't look like much."

"I wouldn't say that. Those Hyuugas always seem like that. Look at Neji Hyuuga. You wouldn't tell how strong he is, but trust me, he will be a fearsome shinobi one day."

"That may be right; still the girl will have a tough road ahead of her if she doesn't improve fast."

"You seem to have better luck then me. I have Kyuubi brat in the class. Man what a pain. I can already see the chaos he'll spawn."

"Yeah, that kid is no good. I mean why the hell did Sandaime-sama allowed him to join the Academy in the first place is mystery to me."

"Hey come on. He can be a very strong shinobi after all."

"You're not serious now, are you? This kid is nothing but trouble I tell you. By training him we'll only sign our own death warrant faster."

"That's right. Besides there's no way that someone like that will be anywhere near the geniuses like Uchiha or Hyuuga. Hell, even kids from civilian families are better then him."

"You think we should take advantage of the fact that he lowered his guard here?"

"You want to do something under the very nose of Hokage? That's insane."

"I agree. Still maybe we can make him quit the school."

"Do what you like. I'd rather concentrate on those that at least show some promise. They're at least worth the effort. After all that's what we are here for."

"Yeah, that's right. So we start with physical evaluation tomorrow, right?"

"Of course. We need to know what we are working with."

"Then see you all tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow."

**

* * *

**

**- One year later, Konoha Ninja Academy -**

Naruto was on his way towards the forest where he could train without anyone noticing. He was getting sick of the Academy, villagers, adults and children alike, and the world as a whole. He was already a year in the academy and things were just as bad as on his first day if not worse. He tried as hard as he could but still he couldn't accomplish anything. Whenever he knew answer to a question asked by the teacher he wasn't asked. He really was reading the books at home. He thought he even understood most of them. But somehow when he was raising his hand he was never picked to answer. And when he didn't know he was the first one to be asked. Always. Also when he had some questions for the teachers they never had time for him. He tried to learn for the tests but he never received a good mark on them. Ever. What's more some tests were just too difficult for him. Even when he tried to find the answers for them in the books after the tests he just couldn't do it. There weren't even hints where to find these answers. What was even worse were his trouble practical lessons. They were just starting to learn how concentrate their chakra but for him it was utterly impossible. When he started it was a complete failure. At first he couldn't feel anything. It continued for the first few times before he finally managed to draw some chakra. And when he thought everything was okay the chakra suddenly just disappeared. He tried from that moment on but still to no avail. Granted it was just presented a week ago but some kids already managed to hold it for the requested five minutes. Even the rest was able to get to some decent level with it. He had to come up with something or he would be laughed at again. And they had the obstacle course in the next few days. He had to train for that too. That meant a lot of additional training.

When he thought about the past year he recalled what it brought for him. At first he was ecstatic about the start of the Academy. He thought about all those things that he would learn there. The reality was not so nice. He had problems from the very start. And lack of help from the teachers wasn't helping at all. And everyone else was ignoring him all the time. He didn't do that much worse than the rest of the class but still no one was willing to pay any attention to him. Recently their classes were mixed and he landed with some new guys but they weren't any better than the old ones. The fact that one of them was really good with all the shinobi stuff wasn't making it any better. His name was Sasuke Uchiha and was good at almost anything they were taking. Only thing that he wasn't best at was written tests. Now they had a girl with pink hair in the class that was very good at them. She aced all the tests. That and the fact that she was quite cute made Naruto like her from the very beginning. _"It's time to start additional training. The last time I tried something everyone laughed at me. Well, at least there was some reaction. Like the time when I was playing pranks on people. They didn't ignore me all the time. And every time I say something that even sounds smart they look at me strangely or totally ignore me. It's even worse then when I was punished for all the pranks I did. Hmm… That might be a good thing though. At least this way they'll start to notice me a little bit. Then I'll have to start planning something that'll announce to the village that Naruto Uzumaki is back in business!"_

**

* * *

**

**- Later that night, somewhere across Konoha, Thursday -**

Naruto began to prepare for his first big prank after a year break. _"It has to be something grand. This way everyone in the village will have to notice it. What's the best visible place in the Konoha? That would be the Hokage Monument. Yeah that's a good place to start playing pranks once again."_ After that he set out towards the Hokage Monument. As he was about to start making his additions he noticed a single figure that was heading towards Hokage Tower. _"Damn it! Just as I'm about to start something there has to be Jounin returning from a mission. Better hide somewhere and lay low until he goes out of the Tower."_ Naruto somehow managed to climb the Fourth's head and started to observe the surroundings. The figure went inside the Hokage Tower and then everything went silent again. Naruto had a very good look over the village from the point where he was. Everything looked so peaceful. The entire village was resting before the next busy day. For a moment he felt a little bit guilty. But it was soon over when he recalled that the village didn't do anything good for him. _"Old Man is trying but even he probably doesn't really care for me."_ Then he noticed that the security was more lax then usually. The guards at wall and gate were lazily patrolling their parts and were fewer then normally. There were no police patrols this time on the streets which was a bit strange but maybe they had a holiday or something. Though that was doubtful. _"They're always on the streets. Not that they care about me though. But that's maybe for the better that I don't have too many troubles with police."_ Everything seemed for a moment so still that it was eerie and completely unnatural. At that moment he noticed that the same figure that he saw earlier left the Tower. _"Ok, now's the good time to carry out my genius plan!"_ As he started to lower himself on the line to be on the eyes level he noticed that someone was still inside the Tower as several lights were still on. _"They just had chosen this night to have some sort of meeting. And it's full moon too. Maybe I should leave it for now? Yeah that's probably good idea."_ Naruto left his position and took his time exploring various roads down the hill and finding as many strange entrances as he could. _"I'll explore them later. Now I have to rest before tomorrow. Wonder where they lead? Anyways it will be good to know them when I'll try to outrun those idiots when they'll chase me after pranks."_ After Naruto went out of sight two elderly figures exited the Tower and headed towards South District of the village. Few moments later the lights in the Hokage Tower went out and the entire city finally went to rest. But only few knew what had just happened and even they didn't imagine what was about to happen in the next few days.

**

* * *

**

**- The several days later, Naruto's Apartment, Wednesday -**

As Naruto sat in his apartment he was beginning to get annoyed by the entire thing. Everything started innocently enough but then suddenly began to get out of hand in an insane and very quick way. He had no idea why something like this was happening to him. And now he was stuck in his apartment for the entire day with a bodyguard at his door. Fortunately for him it seemed that everything was in order now. _"Still the last few days were really crazy." _Naruto thought as he recalled the events of the past few days.

_(Flashback, beginning)_

_-Friday-_

_Naruto was on his way home from the Academy and was curiously looking around himself. People were strangely agitated about something. So much that many of them forgot to send glares in his direction. He noticed earlier today that something was off. The entire atmosphere of the village was very strange. Then Sasuke didn't appear in the school which was also strange as he is one of the most diligent students. After that the unusual number of guys in cloaks and masks that were stationed all around the town. After that everyone was whispering to each other about something he was even more curious then in the morning. He knew that even if he asked no one would give him any kind of answer. So he thought that maybe he could overhear someone. People tend to overlook him so it wasn't that difficult to hear bits of news here and there. But what he heard made no sense as everyone was saying things that didn't fit together regardless how he tried to put them. Another bad thing was that people started to notice him at the end of the day and the glares that they sent him were even worse then usually._

_-Sunday-_

_Things went from bad to worse as some people started to call him names like "demon", "monster" and "murderer" on his way towards Market District. Fortunately no one from the school has seen it as that would probably raise many questions which he didn't have answers to and would probably bury all the chances on becoming friends with anyone. Hopefully this would end soon._

_-Monday-_

_There were no classes this day as the teachers were assigned some sort of work outside and said there was some sort of murder in the village that was very serious and the students had day off. He didn't know what to do with all that time on his hands so went to look at those secret entrances he found few days ago. He had enough time now to do it and thought it would be useful in his future "expeditions". Everything went well until he exited the network of tunnels he was exploring. Then again everything went insane. When he went out on the street several people started name-calling him and even someone threw something at him. After that he decided to go home as fast as he could._

_-Tuesday-_

_This was the worst day in history for him. Glares and insults were together with him from the moment he went outside his apartment and he had only break during his time at school. What has surprised him was that teacher weren't as nearly as bad as the civilians who were waiting outside for him. After the classes were over he tried to get quickly back home suspecting that villagers weren't too friendly at this point. He managed to cross several streets without many problems. It seemed that shinobi were generally not as hostile towards him as the rest of the village. But his luck ran out eventually. On one of the streets a bunch of 100 or something people gathered and started shouting at him and throwing stones. He ran towards the first entrance to the underground network he remembered with the mob hot on his heels. Then suddenly several masked ninja appeared in the way of the villagers stopping them and letting him escape. He only managed to hear them shouting at the ninja. Then one person with cat mask went inside and started looking for him. "It's okay now. You don't have to hide from me. I won't hurt you. You can come out now." The person, judging by the voice woman, said as she entered the underground area. Naruto sat huddled near the wall clearly frightened with what happened barely few moments ago. She tried to approach slowly and carefully so that she wouldn't scare the kid even more then he already was. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you?", she asked when got close enough. He only shook his head but the women still let out tiny sigh of relief. At least they managed to get there on time. "Come on I'll take you home. Don't worry nothing will happen to you when you're with me.", she said and took his hand to get him to his apartment._

_(Flashback end)_

Now when he thought about everything it more seemed like some kind of nightmare then anything else. And probably he would have of it like that if not for the presence of the grey and black clad women with a cat mask on her face standing at his door as a guard. As he was wondering what was it everything about he heard someone knock on his door. "Who's there?"

"It's me Naruto, can I come in?", the voice that answered was easily recognisable as belonging to the Third Hokage. Naruto quickly got up went to open the door. "What are you doing here Old Man?", Naruto asked clearly surprised that the man would come to his apartment.

"Well I have to apologize to you for what happened yesterday. And to clear few things about that day as well."

"But why do you have to apologize? It wasn't you who have chased me."

"No, but sometimes when it's difficult to say who from the village is at fault or it's generally the village fault as a whole I as the leader have to take responsibility. And unfortunately this is such time that's why I came."

"But why something like that happened? And why it happened to me? I didn't do anything! Honestly! I don't even know what's going on!"

"Calm down Naruto. I know it's not your fault. Last Thursday there was a big murder in the village. When something like this happens, especially when the person or people murdered are respected or admired, the people want to know who did it. And want that person to be punished as fast as possible. But this kind of investigation usually takes some time. When it takes too much time people sometimes try to find the person responsible for it themselves and turn people they don't like as the most likely culprits.", Sarutobi explained

"But that's stupid! They don't know anything about it! How can they find the person who has done it?"

"It's true but sometimes when the emotions are very strong we don't always act rationally. But you don't have to worry anymore. We managed to find out who did it so nobody will bother you anymore."

"Yeah.", Naruto answered but he didn't look particularly convinced by this reasoning.

"Good, now that we've cleared everything I'll get going. Bye Naruto."

"Yeah, see you another time Old Man."

**

* * *

**

**- On the way to the Hokage Tower -**

Hokage was heading back to his office after his talk with Naruto. Alongside him walked cat masked ANBU. "So the investigation has already been completed.", Sarutobi asked in even tone.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. It seems that someone was abetting the villagers but we are unable to find out who was it. It seems that none of the shinobi paid any attention to those that were spreading those rumours and the civilians that were caught during the lynching are all unable to recall any details. Do you think that all this was planned by the same person?"

"Doesn't look like it. The styles of these incidents are totally different. It seems that someone clearly tried to take advantage of the situation that was created by the Uchiha massacre."

"It's a good thing that we were capable of reacting so quickly. The might have not survived it if this wasn't stopped fast enough."

"Yes, indeed we were very lucky", Sarutobi responded as he recalled the note that he found this Saturday on his desk. _"Remember about the 12__th__ of October."_, it said. He had no idea how it could get on his desk but he at least suspected who left it. _"Well it's a good thing that someone kept their wits about them."_, he thought, _"You never abandoned him or the village, now did you?"_. Once again he felt that he was too old for this job. And now he had a new tragedy on his head to deal with. This would truly prove to be a difficult trial for all involved.

**

* * *

**

**- The next day -**

Naruto was on his way towards the Academy and was almost seething inside. Despite the events from two days ago nothing changed in how the people looked at him. It was as if the entire thing never happened. Well he didn't expect people to suddenly start liking him but some kind of change, any kind of change would be something natural for him. Yet no one seemed to have noticed that anything happened. It was infuriating. _"Well I'll show them that you don't mess with Naruto Uzumaki! Tomorrow everyone will be talking about me."_, after that he went to the Academy with renewed enthusiasm. After all having a goal in your life really helps when something upsetting happened to you. But he would've to make some preparations for his big return.

* * *

- **Two months later, somewhere in the Academy -**

Iruka Umino was facing a very daunting dilemma in a form of a bit hyperactive blond 7 year old boy by the name of Naruto Uzumaki. Everything started about two months ago. It came as quite a shock when all around the town paint bombs went off especially in the places where a lot of people gathered. It took some time to determine who had done such a thing but they managed to find the culprit. It wasn't particularly difficult especially that the culprit wasn't really making it a secret who or where he was. From that time a day without a prank was a rarity. And even then he was planning something for the future, or at least that's what Iruka suspected. That was what brought the present dilemma. He just couldn't understand what happened to Naruto. Before he wasn't really the best student but he didn't do too badly. He had pretty decent marks from his tests, which was on the contrary to almost everyone else's, and tried his best on every lesson he has been to. That was before he started to play pranks on everyone around him. His marks dropped to the level where he barely passed and had a multitude of problems with virtually everything. While Iruka knew the truth about the boy and when he was young was really angry about the Hokage decision but as the time went by he managed to come to terms with it. When Naruto joined the Academy Iruka saw the boy that didn't have anything common with the demon fox that raided the village seven years ago. During the last year he even sympathised with poor kid a little but couldn't really do anything for him. Which brought him to present moment. After his last prank, during which half of the school hallways was dirty, Naruto had to stay to clean everything. Iruka, on the other hand, stayed to insure that it was done properly. Iruka observed as young boy was cleaning one of the hallways and wondering on the problems which could lead to his poor marks. _"It's not that he's stupid. He has incredibly short attention span. But why, even after so many exercises, he can't mould his chakra? This will be very problematic as he will move on to more advanced techniques."_, and it was his duty as a teacher to correct these mistakes but he couldn't put his finger on the root of this problem. As he was wondering about it he noticed that Naruto wasn't particularly diligent in his work. _"Well, it is a punishment for him after all. Hmm… maybe a little incentive will make him work faster."_, Iruka thought. "Hey Naruto if you end it quickly here maybe we can go somewhere and have a snack?"

"Why would we do that?", Naruto asked still a bit suspicious but definitely curious.

"You worked pretty hard today so you're probably hungry. Besides because it's first time it'll be my treat.", upon hearing that the boy's eyes lit up and he got to work twice as fast as before. _"At least he's easy to convince."_, thought amused by the speed at which Naruto was now working.

As Naruto and Iruka were on their way towards the Market District to have something to eat Naruto was wondering where this would lead to. On the contrary to what Iruka was thinking he didn't believe him right off the bat. But it was the first time someone invited him anywhere and it felt… nice. After he started to prank almost everyone, the people started to act a bit cautious around him. As he was preparing for the pranks he couldn't spend so much time reading and learning so naturally he got worse marks but that wasn't so bad after all. Some teachers stopped giving him harder tests and generally everyone wasn't acting like he was the most despicable person on the earth. Instead they treated him like he was stupid. It was for the better as he could at least go shopping in some shops in which he couldn't have done so earlier. They probably thought that as an idiot he wasn't as dangerous as he was earlier. Why did they think like that was beyond him but as long as they would treat him better he would play along. After all it wasn't that difficult. Since nobody paid any attention to him he would just act stupid in their presence and flunk a few tests or write just well enough not to fail and would later worked extra hard in private. That way he still could pass the graduation tests someday. But right now he was approaching a strange stand from which quite tasty smells were coming so he concentrated on the present for the moment. "What's that Iruka-sensei?", he pointed towards the stand as they approached.

"This?", Iruka said looking at the stand, "That's a ramen stand. Want to try some?"

"What's a ramen?"

"You have never tried it, eh? You may as well try it now, come on." Iruka replied as he led the young boy towards the stand.

"Welcome, welcome! How can I help you?", a jovial slightly older man said as they sat at the counter. He was surprised when he saw the demon brat but as he was accompanied by one of the ninjas he decided that there was no harm in trying to get to know the kid. "So what will it be?"

"As for Naruto this will be the first time trying ramen we'll have just two pork ramen please.", Iruka said as he settled on a chair. Naruto in the meantime looked around the booth with interest. A few moments later two steaming pots with broth and noodles arrived before them and both started eating.

"Itadakimasu!", Naruto almost shouted as he dug into his portion, "Wow, it's really great!", he said and smiled looking at the owner of the stand. _"This is the best day in my life"_

"I'm glad that you like it.", the owner replied with a smile. _"It seems that what everyone said about the demon kid was a huge exaggeration if not an outright lie"_, he thought. "And my name is Teuchi, Teuchi Ichiraku."

Iruka watched the scene in front with a little smile of his own. This smile he had just seen was different from all those he gave at school, almost as if a completely different person was sitting in front of him. The first true smile on Naruto's face he saw. _"It looks like the little trip gave me a lot more then just some insight into his character."_, Iruka thought as he began his own dish.

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A/N

Thanks for all the reviews and comments. I really appreciate them and look forward to next. Once again sorry for the delay and I remind you that a poll is going on my profile page for the preferable pairing in the story. Again I didn't plan on this chapter to be this long but somehow I ended up writing a bit more then originally planned. Thus some scenes had to be moved to the next chapter.


	4. You fail or do you?

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Still. And I doubt it will change in the future. I'll let you know if it changes though.

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**Chapter 3: You fail again… or do you?**

**- Two years later, Konoha Ninja Academy -**

Iruka landed carefully on the roof of one of the buildings and started to survey the surroundings. Two other chunnins passed him on their way to find the blonde haired menace. Two years have passed since the first time Iruka took Naruto to Ichiraku ramen and as he was now looking nothing changed. Naruto was still causing havoc; he still didn't learn and still had tremendous trouble with everything. And caused them for everyone. Well maybe something did change. Now it took a lot longer to catch him. As Iruka took off in the direction of the biggest commotion and tried to look out for any surprises in which Naruto seemed to specialize. Tripwires, falling pots and bottles, slippery fragments of roof covered with water or oil, small round candy scattered on the road, water balloons that suddenly dropped on you. There seemed to be no end to his tricks. But the biggest mystery for many citizens was however, how he could play some prank in one part of the city and then suddenly disappear in order to be seen on the other side of the town few minutes later. That was also the main problem with catching him. It was extremely hard to predict where he would show up next. Iruka was one of the few that managed to catch him without major problems. Well he had some practice in that field from his school days and as they say old habits die hard. As he was looking around he noticed that one of the lids of the sewers in the back alley started to move. It shifted a little bit and it looked as if someone peeked outside a little bit. Iruka tried to get closer to have a better look at the person who was travelling through the sewers. He was aware that there were quite a lot of underground tunnels under the city that were connected to the sewers. And if his instincts were right he just found answer to one of the mysteries surrounding the blonde troublemaker. Then when the person thought that nobody was in the vicinity he moved the lid a little more and got out of the sewer. The person Iruka saw was about 1,5 m tall and was dressed in grey jacket and pants and wore black veil and goggles over his face. The person took off the jacket and trousers which looked like just few fabrics of grey cloths sewn under which was another set of trousers, this time in orange colour. He took of his veil and packed everything in the backpack which he was carrying with himself. Despite suspecting who might have it been Iruka was still somewhat stunned that in front of him stood none other then the loudest and most brazen student of Konoha Ninja Academy: Naruto Uzumaki. _"I have to add the most unpredictable and surprising to his notable characteristics."_, Iruka thought to himself as he jumped down from the roof next to the boy.

Naruto was rather pleased with himself as he exited the sewers. In the recent two years he discovered that a lot of tunnels which started at the Hokage's Mountain then joined with the sewers in the city and other different type of tunnels under the city. Though he already had mapped most of them he tried to avoid some of them as there was evidence that they were being used by someone. That didn't surprise him. This was a ninja village after all there had to be some ninja that used to move around the village. He never saw anyone but there were a few tunnels in which didn't have even an inch of dust so he avoided them. They also looked more solid and newer when compared with those that started at the Hokage Mountain. This way he was forced to stick to the sewers and older part of the tunnels. But that wasn't a problem at all. The area was very large and covered large part of the city except of some parts of West District which he rarely visited anyway so it wasn't that much of a problem. During his travels he managed to find quite a lot of interesting places one of which he turned into his secret hideout. Most of the old tunnels were not used by anyone so he used them to move around the city and escape from his pranks. _"Even though going through the sewers is not the nicest way of travelling the city, but certainly is the fastest one."_, Naruto thought as he put on his trademark orange jacket on. "Right, now we can start the day!"

"And where are you going, Naruto?", he heard a voice behind him and slowly turned around to see Iruka standing right behind him.

"Iruka-sensei!! What are you doing here?", Naruto asked stunned by the sight of his teacher.

"I should be the one asking you this. And for your information someone decided to play a prank on some merchants in the Market District few moments ago. Care to explain yourself?"

"Hey, that was really artistic. They look a lot better in their new clothes.", a goofy grin returned to his face as he spoke and Iruka had to wonder where the resolute and careful boy which had exited the sewers went. In front of him was standing the same energetic, optimistic and totally careless boy that always did something unpredictable and in many cases stupid in the classes.

"Naruto, you know that the time of exams is coming. You even volunteered to take also the graduation exams this time. If you don't stop with these pranks and sit to learn more you'll never make it past the theoretical part of the exam.", Iruka said in stern tone but it didn't seem to have any effect on the young boy standing in front of him.

"Don't worry Iruka-sensei, I'll ace the test and show everyone just how awesome I am", Naruto however was not so completely unaffected by what Iruka said. He was well aware that he probably didn't have any chance of graduating. But it was an opportunity to scout what waited for him in the future. He had no reputation to tarnish, no one to scold him for a failure, no one to disappoint and nothing to risk at the exam so it was a perfect situation for him where he could only gain.

"_Nothing really gets to this boy, does it?"_, Iruka sighed deeply and shook his head, "Enough of that for now. I think you have something to do now. And the classes have already started." Smile on Naruto's face faded but before he had a chance to do anything Iruka grabbed him by the collar and started to drag him towards the Academy.

**

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**

**- Two weeks later, forest behind the Academy -**

Hinata was sitting quietly under the tree. She was wondering what to do with herself. It was her third year at the Academy but it seemed that she couldn't make any progress at all. Her father was definitely not pleased by this turn of events. He was expecting some kind of progress from her. He now started to train her younger sister and was expecting that Hinata would be competing with her in order to show what she was worth. But she couldn't force herself to hurt or even fight her sister seriously. Hanabi was a sort of memento of her mother. She couldn't force herself to trample it. It's not that she was weaker then her sister. After all she was six years older. Even with talent and attitude it was hard to cover that much physical difference at their current age. At least for now. As time would go by the distance would gradually decrease. And taking into consideration the rate of growth of the tow of them it would decrease fast. _"But I tried, tried so hard._ _Maybe I should just give up. Maybe I'm not suited to this kind of thing after all. Maybe I'm a loser just as everyone says."_, Hinata thought.

As she was sitting there she heard someone panting. _"But no one comes here. These who train do so with their families or friends. And others have better places to go then some spooky forest."_, she felt even more miserable that she was sitting under out here all alone. She stood up and thought of going back home but the curiosity took better of her and she decided to take a look what was going on. She reached one of the clearings in the forest and hidden behind a tree. In the middle was a young boy doing push-ups. She recognised the boy almost right away. It was very easy to do after all. She was recently transferred to the class with him and he immediately stood out of the entire class. The biggest troublemaker in the entire school and one of the worst students. His name was Naruto Uzumaki. As she recalled he was always somewhere near the bottom of the class when it came to marks. But he always passed them somehow. There were a lot of kids that dropped out of the Academy because they couldn't keep up with the curriculum of the Academy. But he somehow managed to pass all the exams. Of course his marks were barely passable but it was still enough for him to go on. She heard that he failed the graduation exam several days ago. Why he volunteered to such a thing was completely unknown to her. It was obvious that someone with marks like his or her attitude would fail. Still she started to respect him a little for his courage. And even after so many setbacks he still tried so hard. She could clearly see that he was training for a long time already; several trees had signs that he was training both in taijutsu and with weapons here also. Why didn't he give up yet was a complete mystery to her. She would've stopped many times already. She decided that maybe she could observe him a little more.

Naruto decided that 100 push-ups were enough for now and that the time came for weapon practice. He had fewer problems with physical tests now but there still were some areas in which he wasn't as good as he would like to be. He had some trouble with taijutsu but it wasn't as bad as in the past. Not that he could say he was good at it but he was coming closer to at least average level recently. The real problem came with ninjutsu and genjutsu. While he could understand the theory pretty well, ninjutsu practice was something completely else. He tried as much as he could but couldn't get anywhere with it. He couldn't even succeed with the simplest techniques like **"Transformation" **or **"Clone Jutsu".** No matter how much he concentrated on the task or practiced after the classes he never managed to perform them properly. With genjutsu it was even worse. He could understand the general concept behind it but the instruction which were so convoluted that no matter how he tried to read them nothing made sense. Not that any of the teachers was worried about it. It certainly didn't help that his chakra control was definitely not the best either. He always wondered why it was so. While he did the same thing as the others he never got the same results. He thought that maybe he had more chakra then other students but that also didn't make any sense. After all he couldn't have that much more to make the difference between them so big. This year exams were not that bad as the previous years so it wasn't difficult to pass them with the lowest passable mark. The graduation exams on the other hand were really tough. Even with his entire knowledge and fully concentrated he wouldn't be able to pass them. _"Well, at least now I know what to learn and prepare for the future. After all it's not like I can expect help from anyone."_, Naruto thought as he recalled the smirks of people that came to see the exam results. Apart from that the things at the Academy weren't so bad. All teachers stopped paying any attention to him, except Iruka that is. Who, as Naruto noted, was extremely persistent in trying to make him learn things at the Academy. Or rather anything. Not that Naruto was ungrateful or anything but he just couldn't understand why he did so when virtually everyone else was going out of their way to avoid him or didn't give a damn what happened to him. And because he didn't know that he decided to be a bit cautious around him. It's better to be safe then sorry. It seemed at least that he tried to be a decent person and that was a huge plus in his favour. It was still nice to know that there at least was one person who didn't think of him as only a nuisance.

But to be really fair he had to say that he started to get on with some kids from his class recently. There were mostly trouble children like him, with low grades and constantly in trouble with some teachers. What was surprising was that all of them came from ninja clans in the village. _"At least their parents don't take them away when I'm near. And they're really fun to hang out with even for this short period of time after the classes."_. Kiba was the most fun out of the entire bunch. He was always first to any get out of the class and play. Shikamaru was always sleeping through all the lessons and did as nearly as badly as Naruto mostly because he never wrote anything on the tests. Chouji turned out to be really nice kid; that is unless you took his food from him. One prank went really bad when Naruto made that kind of mistake. Fortunately free coupon to Ichiraku's done wonders and Naruto somehow survived the ordeal. _"No time standing around! Time for weapon practice!"_, Naruto thought as he returned to his training not noticing a small figure peaking at from behind a nearby tree.

**

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**- Two months later, Main Street of the East District -**

Shikamaru was just relaxing and watching clouds on one of the roofs when he heard a commotion below on the street. Suddenly something bright appeared in front of him. _"Should've known that he is somehow involved in this."_, he thought as he looked at the orange clad figure standing in front of him which was shouting something at people down on the street. "You'll never catch me morons! I'm so awesome that you'll never get me!", Naruto shouted at the chunnin chasing him and turned around to see Shikamaru who was completely unaffected by the entire scene that was happening in front of him. "Yo Shika, what's up?"

"Not much. Beside the troublesome noise and commotion that you're causing."

"Lazy as always I see. So, what do the clouds say today?", Naruto all the time said that  
Shikamaru is trying to tell what would be on the next exam from the clouds so he wouldn't have to learn for it. Not that he would learn anyway.

"The same as always. Those three chunnins are heading this way and that you'll be in a lot of trouble if they catch you."

"Darn, you're right", said Naruto looking behind and noticing the approaching figures, "Then I'd better go. See you later Shika."

"Tch, troublesome.", he muttered under his nose but a small smile graced his lips. Naruto was a total enigma to him. While a lot of things pointed towards him being a total idiot and troublemaker there were also times that contradicted this. He was universally considered the class' dead last based on his poor marks from written work and other subjects. While true that he wasn't an ace now, when they started the Academy he easily placed somewhere in the middle of the class. What happened that he suddenly became so lousy in studies was a mystery. His skill in taijutsu was also nothing spectacular but he didn't do too badly. His bad luck was that he was always pitted against Sasuke or someone else with definitely above average skill. Still even then he had enough stamina to last longer then any other student of their age. At the same time while he couldn't do even the simplest techniques both in ninjutsu and genjutsu he could try to perform those long after everyone else have long given up. Another thing was that despite his problems somehow none of the teachers seemed to mind it or help him. Recently Iruka tried to correct that but to no avail so far. After three years of this kind of treatment it would be hard to make Naruto focus on studies. It certainly didn't help that Naruto was not enticed to do it in the least. The fact he managed to achieve this much almost on his own was not bad at all. Still all this thinking was way too troublesome. _"It's better to just watch the clouds."_

**

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**- Few moments later, Konoha Ninja Academy -**

Kiba was walking towards the building for another boring day full of lectures and other useless activities. Just when he approached the building a flash of orange passed him and headed towards the building but managed to get just a few steps ahead when it was caught by two figures in green chunnin jackets. After few seconds of futile struggle Kiba saw that it was none other then the orange clad troublemaker Naruto Uzumaki. It looked like the two chunnin agreed who'll take him to the Academy (with good old game of janken) and started to drag him towards the building. Kiba decided to join his friend on the way; at least that would be more interesting then going there alone. "What's up knucklehead? Getting caught once again?", Kiba teased a little bit.

"They got lucky this time. Just you wait next time it won't end like this!"

"Right, like the last time. And the previous one too.", he laughed a bit.

"Like I care.", Naruto huffed as he was dragged to the Academy, "Okay, you can give a rest. I'll go on my own. You don't have to drag me all the way there." The chunnin didn't pay any attention to struggling kid and Kiba laughed at the sight of struggling Naruto. Now that he thought about it, it was quite strange how he could run from chunnin for such a long time. Some pursuits were really long ones. Especially when Iruka didn't take part in it. Naruto seemed to have incredible stamina and could run or train for a very long time. The only way to catch was to do it before he managed to set up any traps. If you didn't do that the entire chase might just take quite a long time. Still Kiba had to admit that being with him in one class was interesting. At least there wasn't a boring day with him. You could always count on him to come up with some surprising idea for prank. Also it was a nice change from the ever gloomy emo ace of the class. Overall it was nice to have someone like this in the class even if he didn't want to be with him in one team. He stopped laughing and saw that Naruto finally free from the ropes stood up and started walking towards the Academy.

"You don't have to go, I know the way.", he said to the chunnin who was walking behind them

"Like you're going to tell anyone about what you've done, brat."

"Whatever."

"_Today will be another interesting day it seems."_ Kiba thought as he was listening to the conversation with a wide smile on his face.

**

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**

**- Later that day, Konoha Main Street -**

Naruto was returning from the Academy and thought about his current class. After many changes it seemed that this class would last in this shape to the end of the academy. There was even a girl he liked and it looked like they wouldn't be changing this class anymore as they were entering the last part of their education. She was cute, smart and always nice to everyone around her. She was even very nice to him at the beginning. So there were chances that he could go out with her. If only she wasn't after the class' number one jerk. _"What does she like so much about him anyway. He never really said anything to her, he's nasty and annoying, and he acts like he's better then everyone else. And still all girls are after him. Heck, for some time I thought that I'd at last someone who I could relate to but he turned out to be some worst kind of person I could have imagined. I still can at least try to ask her out."_ As he was walking he noticed that people were glaring at him more then they usually did. Then he remembered that it was October and as always when his birthday approached he was less welcomed on the streets then usually. He always wondered why, it certainly wasn't because of the pranks. Even he wasn't stupid enough to play pranks on that day. The day that marked the attack of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. He decided that his hideout would be the best place to spend his free time during this week.

While travelling through the tunnels and sewers under Konoha he found out several places that looked like some sort of rooms or closets. There were all located in the older part of the tunnels, were relatively dry, not really big but enough for several people to fit in and completely empty and unused by anyone. Naruto decided to make his secret hideout in one of those places. His apartment was not really the best place and if his act as the village number one idiot was to be convincing he couldn't be seen with books. The books were his silent friends for a long time now. After all the first time he got anything from anyone was when the Hokage lent him two books from his office. From that moment he tried to read as much as possible but had several problems with it. First was that he couldn't buy too many of them as he had not so much money from the start and other expanses. And secondly he didn't have permission to go to the shinobi's library yet. Even after he started the Academy he wasn't welcomed in the library. The librarians always found tons of reasons that he couldn't borrow the books. So he was limited to the civilians' library which didn't have that many books on ninja subjects but still that was better then nothing. He also tried to save money in order to buy some but that took some time. Then again since he started to eat regularly at Ichiraku's he had more savings. Well it was cheap, good, fast and he was welcomed there so it was ideal place to eat. But on the other hand he had more expenses connected with his shinobi training now. He had to buy weapons and scrolls on his own so in the end not much has changed. Naruto turned into one of the side alleys and disappeared from sight of the villagers. Most of them were quite satisfied with this resolution. They were fine as long as they didn't have to be near or see the demon brat as he was commonly called throughout the village. But some were not really happy with the fact that Kyuubi brat was walking on his own in their village. Maybe a little lesson was in order to show him that he wasn't welcomed here. With this thought three self-appointed "upholders of justice" followed him in the alley only to find themselves alone with no sign of the brat or anyone else for that matter. As they were about to turn around and leave a lone figure dropped from the roof knocking out one of them immediately. "My, my, what has happened to this village? And to think that Konoha was once considered the most noble of the five great villages. It seems like the times are really changing." the figure said before knocking out the remaining.

Naruto put on his goggles and made his way through one of the tunnels that was carved beneath the village to his secret hideout. It was nice to go somewhere without the constant glares but he still would appreciate some kind of people down here. As he reached the intersection he checked if it was clear before continuing. It was a habit he had while being down here to always check if there wasn't someone coming. He didn't have any unpleasant encounters yet but he found bloodstains and other nasty reminders that this was after all a shinobi village. He didn't need more then that to be really careful when travelling through the tunnels. What immensely helped him in that were the goggles he was wearing. He read in one of the books that there were special lenses that allowed seeing better in the dark. He needed to save money for them for a long time but he managed to buy them finally. They weren't perfect and were a bit heavy but still it was better then nothing. Thanks to that he had decent sight even when there wasn't any light in the tunnels and could move around them without torch or other source of light. The sewers were lesser problem as it was easier to hide in them and harder to track anyone. But here caution was required and he really tried to leave as few tracks as possible not to alarm others that used this tunnels. After several more minutes he reached the entrance to the old part where his hideout was placed. He turned one of the smaller caverns there into his own small storage room. There he wasn't afraid that anyone would mess up his belongings. From the few planks he found laying around in different parts of the complex he managed to make something that resembled table and two bookshelves. He also smuggled one of his futons and several sets of candles. The adventure with futon was quite interesting considering he had to take it quite far from his apartment to the nearest entrance to underground network. Here he also held most of his weapons. Sometimes he himself couldn't believe how much of this stuff was left on the training grounds. True that most of it couldn't be used anymore but some were in quite good shape. That way he could save at least some money and still have a decent amount of kunai and shuriken to practice without any problems. Those damaged made a good practice material in private while he took the better ones with him to the Academy. He was getting near his hideout when he heard voices from one of the tunnels. He cursed himself for his carelessness and not putting his on his protective grey outfit. It was the only non orange cloth he had and he used it during his pranks and to move around this underground area sometimes. But now he forgot to put it on and he just had to run into some people down here. His black shirt wasn't a problem but bright orange pants would be easily spotted especially if those people had light with them. He had to find a place to and fast.

Yugao Uzuki frowned when she encountered another intersection that, according to her map shouldn't be there. _"It seems that our old maps need quite solid update. But who could've built all those extra tunnels down here?"_ Patrolling the network of the underground tunnels and caverns was not a dream job for an ANBU but as she was still just a newbie she had bear with it. Next to her walked a fellow ANBU which they all called Kono. Nobody knew whether that was his real name or not. Not that it mattered that much, not in ANBU at least. He was a rather short man with brown hair in standard ANBU uniform with a raven mask. They were ordered to check the stability of the underground network about two weeks ago and started from the Hokage Mountain. At first Yugao thought that it would be short and boring job. Just take the map, walk a bit around the tunnels and check whether nothing is crumbling or damaged. By far it looked like much more difficult. First problem was that many of the tunnels were now linked with the sewers. That made it a lot more difficult to navigate the entire system. There were also quite a lot of tunnels that weren't shown on their map which was quite unsettling. Someone must have built them after the maps were drawn. That wasn't that difficult considering that some maps were quite old. Also it wasn't that difficult to build such a thing once all the necessary things were smuggled down here. No that wasn't what upset her. It was the fact that the Hokage was not aware of these "additions" that was worrisome. It was ensured that none of the tunnels ended outside of the village to be certain that the possibility of the infiltration was minimal. The shield that was prepared had limited ability to detect threats underground. Now with these new parts it had top be inspected whether that was still valid or not. As she was reaching she heard a soft rustle in one of the corridors. It seemed that they weren't alone down here. Raven apparently noticed it too as he stopped and started to listen. She pointed towards one of the corridors and received a nod in return. They went that way after they turned off their torches, careful not to make any sounds. After a few seconds they heard the sound again and sped up to catch the intruder and just after several dozens of steps they reached another intersection. _"For Heaven's sake this place is like a maze. We'll never manage to map this entire network with so few people."_, she thought as they stopped at the intersection listening for any other sounds. As they stood there for a few minutes but couldn't hear anything so they turned the torches on and prepared to move on. As they began to leave something caught her attention. On one of the corners she saw some sort of stain on one of the walls. After closer examination she found out that it was dried blood.

"Hey Raven, take a look at this."

"What is it, Cat? Blood? But these tunnels were supposed to be unused for years now. Even if it's dried it's not older then three, four weeks top."

"Yeah, apart from us and few reports about that kid no one is supposed to be in these tunnels."

"What are the chances that it's his blood?"

"Rather low. If anything he'd go to the hospital rather then hide here."

"You're right. But that gives us rather disturbing possibilities to consider."

"Do you think we should search for more clues?"

"No, we'll return after we report this to the Hokage. We'll probably need more people down here in order to find out more."

"Right."

She stood up and prepared to leave but something suddenly seemed a bit of to her. She started to survey the space once again. For a moment she thought that someone was watching them. But the room had no place to hide. Or did it? That crack in the wall near the ceiling looked but it was too small for any adult to fit into it. Nah, that was impossible for someone to hide there. _"So what is the feeling?"_, she thought. "Are you coming or what?", Raven called her from the corridor.

"Yeah, right away."

From his hiding spot Naruto saw that two people were talking about something they found. He couldn't hear them very well from here but was grateful enough that he managed to find any hiding place at all. He somehow fitted in the hole made between the wall and ceiling and had good enough view for the entire cavern that was a small intersection between two sets of tunnels. When two ANBU entered it he held his breath. He sometimes saw them in the village but his pranks were never serious enough to warrant them to chase him. He was curious what they were doing here because they didn't seem familiar with the area. He managed to catch few words from their conversation like "blood", "years", "report", "hospital", "clues" and "return". It really looked like they'd return here later. He'd better stay away from these tunnels for some time. Then one of the ANBU with a cat mask suddenly started to look around as if looking for something. She seemed to look at the crack where he was hiding and again Naruto held his breath for few seconds and prayed that he wouldn't be found. After few seconds it seemed like the other ANBU called the first one and both were gone. _"Yeah staying out of these tunnels for a few days is a VERY good idea. It'll become quite crowded in here when they return."_ After that he managed to get to his hideout without any problems. When he finally reached it he found another surprise waiting for him. On the table wrapped in blue paper stood a small tube. He looked around looking for someone but saw no one in the room. He approached the package slowly still looking around searching for someone who could've left it here. Or why for that matter. As he couldn't find anyone he decided to take a chance and see what was inside. As he unpacked it he saw a scroll with a title "Taijutsu, Whirlwind Style basics". He looked at it with wide eyes. _"Man this is the best birthday present ever."_, Naruto thought as he started to read completely ignoring all the surroundings.

**

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**

**- Two years later, end of July, Konoha Ninja Academy -**

Tenten was standing in the hallway in the main building waiting for the entrance to room where her exams would take place. She was a bit anxious about the test that they were supposed to take but was at least confident that she would pass. _"Speaking about confidence there is someone who definitely has lots of It."_, she thought as she watched a blonde boy who walked into the hallway several minutes ago. He was a year younger but decided that he'd take test with them. She didn't know the boy personally but heard about his antics. To be honest there probably wasn't a person that didn't know about them. Naruto Uzumaki had quite a reputation around the village as the biggest troublemaker in the village ever and even, according to some people, to ever walk the earth. That was a bit harsh especially that his pranks weren't really that bad. Most of them weren't even harmful. She didn't know what to think about it. Sure the pranks were annoying but not to this point. Still it was better not to get to close to that kid. She had the most important exam and couldn't lose her concentration right before it. It was enough that she was nervous without adding more to her problems. And hanging around someone like that would most certainly bring a lot of trouble. Though she had to admit the kid some good ideas and guts to do some things he did. If the rumours were accurate that is.

Naruto arrived a little early to be sure he won't lose his chance. He made a decision that this time he'll give it all and pass the graduation exam one year ahead of everybody. That would show everyone that he was serious and that his ambition to become Hokage wasn't just a dream and that he would reach it. It's funny that it started on one of the lessons as an impulse. On one day when they were reviewing "**Transformation Jutsu**" when he couldn't do it and everyone in the class started laughing at him he shouted on instinct that he would become a Hokage one day. At first he didn't thought much about it but as he started to he liked the idea. He would at least be respected for what he did instead of constantly being shunned and hated. That was a good goal to aim for. But also as he wondered about it he remembered that Old Man said that his job wasn't just that. But that would be for later to find out. Now he had the test in front of himself and he had to concentrate on the task at hand. He had to start from something and even though becoming a Genin seemed small it was the first the beginning. As they said – "The journey of thousand miles starts with a single step". Now all there was to do was to make that step and begin the journey. He made his way towards the class where the first part would take place.

**

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**

**- The next day, Konoha Ninja Academy -**

Hinata made her way towards the class where the lesson would be hold. She somehow managed to last to the last year of the course but nothing much has changed in her life. Her father finally decided that she was too weak to waste any more of his time with her training and started training her sister. He didn't even hide it from her. It was nice that he at least arranged for Kurenai-san to escort her. She liked her; she was a lot nicer to her then many people from her family and even has given her some advice on the way to the Academy. _"It's probably thanks to that that I managed to get this far with the training. But I wonder how will I pass the exams at the end of this school year."_, speaking about the exams Naruto-kun volunteered again to take graduation exam earlier. She couldn't help but to admire that courage which she never had. He never let anything get to him and always tried his best. She managed to see him training a few times and witnessed that he was a really hard worker and wondered why he had so many problems in classes when he worked so hard. She was genuinely curious as to what kind of secret this blonde boy held. She might be failure by Hyuuga standards but she still was quite perceptive for her age and few things about this situation didn't seem right. But as she was thinking about the situation she saw that Naruto entered the classroom. For a second she thought that he was sad with his head hanging down and slumping a little but as soon as he went into the view he again had that wide smile he usually assumed in public. Still it was sad that he didn't pass the exams. But that also meant that he would take it together with the entire class after this year. Somehow he intrigued her as she couldn't guess what he really represented with himself. So she had one more year to solve the blonde puzzle.

Sasuke was sitting on his traditional place when Naruto entered the room. He looked just as he does everyday. Maybe there was a bit more tension in the way he carried himself but that was just a minor detail. Sasuke Uchiha was not someone to miss the details. He noticed that Naruto is not treated on the same level as other students but didn't pay much attention. After all he wasted so much time on these stupid pranks instead of learning the proper shinobi stuff. If he put half of that effort into training he could be a competent ninja. Instead he was the dead last of the class and already failed the graduation exams twice. The fact that Naruto was his regular opponent during the training bouts didn't help at all. How could he get stronger if he was facing such weak opponents? Looking at him as he went to take a seat he had to wonder why he always put on this smile of his. It only made him look like a total moron. Not that he wasn't but still getting such low marks from so easy tests was beyond his imagination. It was incredible in itself that he managed to last that long in the Academy. He still didn't have any chances of graduating at all. But that wasn't his problem. _"It'd be better if the dope didn't graduate at all. That way there won't be any chance of him getting on my team. Not that the team will be of any use at all."_

**

* * *

**

**- One year later, Hokage Mountain -**

Naruto was sitting on the Fourth head and wondered what to do now. Once again the time of exams came and this time there were no excuses. He had to pass it this time. Last year he was really close, he managed to somehow pass all the tests but one. Unfortunately for him they had to decide that one test to be from **"Clone Jutsu"**, his worst technique. He tried to correct it ever since but nothing he did gave any results. He could hope that maybe this year's exam won't have that jutsu at the ninjutsu part. But that was still few days ahead so maybe he would find out something to cover that part. This time he had to pass it. And because this would mean the end of his pranks he had to do something that would help the village remember him. He was currently thinking about it when he remembered one of his earlier ideas which he never tried due to some complication and general lack of time. But right now it was ideal. He still had few days to prepare it and collect everything needed for the job. _"Yes, this will the biggest prank ever. Just you watch Konoha, Naruto Uzumaki is going to end his career as prankster with something really big."_ With his renewed enthusiasm he went to start the preparations for the big finale.

**

* * *

**

**- Several days later, Konoha Ninja Academy -**

Iruka was preparing for one of the last lessons with this class. He didn't know what to think about it. Certainly no other class gave him as many troubles as this one. In between dealing with two definitely hyperactive boys going by the names Kiba and Naruto and constantly waking up Shikamaru he had multitude of problems with the enormous fan club of Sasuke Uchiha that disrupted the lessons with their squealing. If that wasn't enough then complete lack of attention from Chouji or Naruto during his lessons and trying to draw something more than a quiet whisper or two, three word response from either Hinata or Shino would have finished the job. And that wasn't enough because there was still Naruto. But that was different topic altogether. Still he couldn't say that this class was boring as all the time something happened. There were also quite a lot of talented kids and he had a good hunch that they would go far. But first they had an exam in front of them and he had to prepare them one last time for it. So he began to do it first thing in the morning. As the weather was very nice he decided to open the window. And that was when he saw that someone decided to add some colours to the Hokage Monument. And he had pretty good idea who was it. _"Why can't he give it a rest for a while? And to think that it's just before his graduation exam. When will this kid get serious about anything?"_, Iruka thought already running towards the door. The faster they catch him the sooner the classes will start. And it'd be better if he was caught by Iruka then someone else. To be completely honest he had better chances of catching him then others. He at least knew him a little bit while everyone else has already written him off as another failure. But even now this kid was an utter mystery. During the last two years he shaped up a bit especially when it came to his physical condition. Too bad he still had so much trouble with other areas especially with genjutsu which he couldn't seem to understand no matter what. But there were more important things to do now then evaluate his student. _"Why did this day have to begin with another senseless chase after which Naruto will just have more troubles and extra work to do?"_ With a quiet sigh Iruka jumped on the nearest roof and joined the chase.

Naruto was running from the several chunnin guards that were sent after him for quite some time already. He maybe even set his new record, the last one being almost one year old was about 20 minutes from the moment the first guard started to chase him. Now it almost reached half an hour. Now after fooling another pair and hiding before them he had some time before they would find him again. "Now that was fun, wonder what should I do next?" he said aloud.

"Maybe you should go to the Academy to learn something for a change.", a voice behind him said.

"_Not good, that happened to me before and it didn't end well."_, Naruto thought as he slowly turned around to see none other then Iruka. "Hey Iruka-sensei, what's going on?"

"We've already been through that Naruto. Now get going to the Academy or do I have to use more direct means?"

"Ok, ok I'm going. No need for you to force yourself, Iruka-sensei.", Naruto put up his arms in a defensive gesture and started going in the given direction. As they were passing the main street Naruto noticed that Iruka was looking at one really pretty lady on the road. An idea came to his head as he saw that. He couldn't play any pranks but he still could've some fun with Iruka.

"What are you looking at Iruka-sensei?" he asked in innocent tone and Iruka suddenly became a bit red on the face

"Nothing, absolutely nothing."

"Oh? It's not that I mind you know."

"W-what do you mean. It's not like I was staring or anything."

"Well a man admire nice shapes from time to time.", Naruto said and glanced at Iruka who became steadily more and more red on his face.

"Right! I mean no! It's not like that. But it's not like I don't…", it went for several minutes and Naruto had to try very hard to suppress his laughter lest he burst out.

"Iruka-sensei, you're quite a pervert aren't you." In the meantime Naruto got another idea how to rile his sensei. This was really so much fun. This way they reached the Academy and Iruka began his lecture once again. Naruto found a way to cope with those long ago. It wasn't that hard really. The entire secret was to just tune it out. But it also had some side effects which included some additional exercises. That was what happened today. Fortunately it was review of **"Transformation Jutsu"** so Naruto could put his into action. As soon as he was called out he concentrated on the image in his mind. Then there was a huge cloud of smoke and after it dispersed standing in front of Iruka was… a cute, blonde and well developed girl with pigtails. What was more interesting was her clothing or rather lock of thereof. After a second or two Iruka almost collapsed from the nosebleed and Naruto released the technique.

"I'll call this technique **Sexy Jutsu**"

"Idiot, don't invent stupid skills!! If you…" Iruka yelled at him and started ranting but Naruto didn't hear any of that as he was rolling on the floor laughing.

**

* * *

**

**- The next day, Konoha Ninja Academy –**

Finally the big day came for Naruto and his entire class. The graduation exam. The time for Naruto to show everyone what he was made of. He prepared for this for almost a year and now was the time to check whether or not training paid off. He entered the classroom as one of the first people to come. The only ones here were Shikamaru who was always one of the first to arrive (_"probably so he could sleep more as if he couldn't do that at home_") and the shy girl Hinata. He took the place and waited for the start of the exams. The people slowly filled the class and at last Iruka came. He explained everyone the rules of the exam. Then the main part started. The written test wasn't as difficult as last year, at least for him. And the taijutsu and genjutsu parts went not bad. He was especially glad with his score from genjutsu. He barely passed but for him it was still quite an accomplishment. The final part came and his entire good mood with it. **"Clone Jutsu"**. It was almost a death verdict for him. Why did in three exams he took he had to do the same jutsu? Still he would give it his all. Maybe this time he would finally pass it. He entered the classroom where the test would take place and saw Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei sitting behind a desk. _"Well maybe it won't be that bad."_, Naruto thought.

"Okay Naruto, you know the rules. Make at least three clones in order to pass this part."

Naruto concentrated as hard as he could and shouted **"Clone Jutsu".** After the smoke dispersed he saw three clones. Too bad none of them was standing or appeared to be able to do anything. Iruka grimaced a little bit before declaring "YOU FAIL!"

"Now Iruka-sensei, I think we can pass him. After all he did create three clones." Naruto's heart skipped as he heard Mizuki saying that.

"I'm sorry Mizuki-sensei but that is impossible. All other students created three fully functional clones while Naruto could make them only appear in this room. That definitely doesn't qualify as a passing level."

After that Naruto went out and sat on the swing looking over the yard where all other kids gathered showing their newly acquired hitai-te. He sat there for a few moments before going into the city. He didn't even bother to put on his smile mask. It didn't matter anyway. Just as he was about to reach the main street someone called him. "Oi, Naruto can we talk for a second." It was Mizuki.

"You must understand that Iruka is not doing this out of spite. He really wants you to become a strong shinobi."

"But I really wanted to pass this year. Why didn't he let me pass even though I did improve so much?"

"Well, if you really want to pass then I can let you on a little secret. There's an alternate way to become a Genin."

"Really?"

"Of course. All you have to do is to sneak into the Hokage Office at night and take a training scroll that's left there for this purpose. It's a big scroll with Forbidden Seals sign on it."

Naruto seen that scroll in the Old Man's office but he wasn't allowed to touch it. Was it because of this? Something was a bit fishy here. But it was his chance to become Genin. _"I won't lose anything if I accept it and prepare appropriately. I still have several hours till dusk."_

"Okay Mizuki-sensei I'll do it."

„Good, after you've done it I'll meet you at…"

**

* * *

**

**- Later that night, clearing near training area 22 -**

Naruto was sitting with the scroll strapped to his back and was panting slightly. Infiltrating the Tower wasn't that difficult as he thought at first. If you knew where the guards were and kept to the shadows you could get in quite easily. Getting past the guards on the second floor was more difficult but still possible if you took your time and aimed for the holes between their patrols. After he got the scroll he headed towards the tunnels to his hideout. He decided to take a little peak inside the scroll. After all this should be only training scroll so maybe there were some easy jutsus he could learn as he had plenty of time. After learning the first one he went to the clearing to wait for his instructor. Few moments later someone landed in the clearing and Naruto raised his head. It was Iruka. "Oh hey Iruka-sensei."

"Don't you hey me Naruto! Do you know how much trouble you're in?"

"Trouble? I'm waiting where I supposed to. Didn't Mizuki-sensei tell you?"

"Mizuki?"

"Yeah he told me about this scroll and place."

"But that would mean… Look out Naruto!", Iruka suddenly shouted and pushed him to the side. Second later several kunai hit Iruka and pinned him the hut that they were standing by. On a nearby tree stood Mizuki with two big shuriken strapped to his back. "I didn't think you'd find this place so fast Iruka. Or that you'd protect the demon brat. Now Naruto hand over that scroll."

"Don't do that Naruto. This scroll contains valuable secrets from the village. Mizuki wants to trick you into betraying the village!"

"Why do you care so much Iruka? You know what he really is, don't you."

"What I am?", Naruto deadpanned.

"Yes, WHAT you are. In fact I think we should inform about one law that exists in the village."

"No Mizuki! You can't do that!"

"A law that everyone knows about. Everyone but you. A law that no one can tell you that you are the incarnation of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox that attacked the village 12 years ago!"

"I'm…", Naruto looked totally stunned by that information and his mind was flooded with thoughts, _"I'm the Kyuubi? But how? What happened? Is that even possible? Why no one told me? That's why everyone hates me. But I'm still me! Why no one sees that?"_, these thoughts were constantly going on in his head.

"And you'll die Demon Fox!", Mizuki shouted as he thrown one of his giant shuriken at him. Naruto tried to dodge it but was to slow when suddenly a shadow appeared in front of him and got hit by the projectile instead. After a second Naruto recognized the person as Iruka.

"Why?", escaped his lips as he looked at his teacher.

"Because I know how painful it had been for you. To be all alone and to suffer. To endure it all and go on.", but Naruto couldn't listen anymore. He ran into the forest to hide from him. From everyone. They have all lied to him. No one has been sincere with him from the very beginning. How could he trust them? He ran and hid behind a tree. Few seconds later two people landed near him one of them was Iruka and the other one was… him? Then he saw that both people were under "**Transformation Jutsu"** after releasing which he saw Mizuki and Iruka.

"To think that you would go as far as transforming into that monster. But you know it's futile. He'll go to the village and using the scroll will have his vengeance against the village. He's just a monster like me."

"Yes; that would be something that a monster would do.", that stunned Naruto. _"So even Iruka believes I'm a monster."_ Naruto thought.

"But Naruto isn't like that. He's one of my best students. Sure he's not an ace and he messes a lot. But he never gives up trying. He takes everything that life throws at him and goes on. I'm proud that I was teaching him."

"Hmm, you were always a sentimental fool Iruka. And now you'll die.", Naruto couldn't allow it. Iruka acknowledged him and he'd rather die himself then allow him to be hurt. He quickly created couple clones and told them to wait. And he jumped in and managed to land a kick on Mizuki's face. As Mizuki was flying through the air the clones hid behind and in the trees surrounding the clearing.

"If you hit Iruka-sensei I'll pay you back thousand times over."

"Small flies shouldn't make threats they cannot support."

"Want to try me? Oh and you can take this scroll.", after that he threw the heavy scroll and hit Mizuki across the chest. Mizuki caught it slightly out of breath from the hit but looked a bit suspicious. "But first I'd check whether it's what you wanted." Mizuki opened the scroll only to see that it was completely blank.

"What is this!?", Mizuki shouted infuriated.

"Something about this assignment didn't seem right so I swapped the scrolls before coming here.", Naruto explained and Iruka had to wonder how many times this kid will surprise him yet. He didn't have time to contemplate it because Mizuki charged Naruto only to trip at wire that suddenly appeared in his way held by two Narutos hidden behind the trees. Right after that from the trees four more Narutos dropped from the treetops and started beating Mizuki. The original in the meantime make a crossed finger seal and conjured another dozen or so clones and charged the battle. Iruka sat under the tree stunned to see Naruto beating up Mizuki. _"But that clones are real! That's the __**Shadow Clone Jutsu**__. Did he manage to learn such a high level jutsu in matter of hours? This kid really has incredible potential."_ He blinked and saw that he fight was already over. Naruto dispelled his clones and stood beside unconscious Mizuki smiling a bit awkwardly. "Maybe I did go a little overboard with it."

"Don't worry about it. Come here for a moment Naruto. And take off your goggles."

"Huh? What for?"

"Just take them off for a moment and close your eyes." Naruto did that even though he was a bit surprised by the request. But he knew now that he could trust Iruka without reservations.

"Okay you can open your eyes." Iruka said after a moment. Naruto saw that Iruka was standing in front of him holding his goggles and without his forehead protector. After a second he realized that it is on his forehead.

"Congratulations, you graduate."

"_It was definitely worth to endure those six years in the Academy to hear these words."_ Naruto thought as he jumped to hug his sensei.

"Easy Naruto, I'm still wounded you know."

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A/N

Thanks for all the reviews and comments. I'm aware that my Naruto maybe is a bit OOC but I hope that my reasons for that are clear. I remind you that poll for Naruto's pairing in this story is going on my profile page. Also if you'd like you can give your own suggestions, just leave them in your comments.


	5. Reactions

Here we go with another chapter. First I want to apologize for everyone who couldn't leave an anonymous review. I didn't notice that I had this option disabled so sorry for that. Also thanks to all who reviewed thisstory and special thanks to **buzzbumble** for his/her opinion; I really appreciate it.

**

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Chapter 4: Reactions.**

**- During "Mizuki's incident", Hokage's Office -**

Sarutobi was sitting at his desk searching for Naruto with his crystal ball. Unfortunately noticing that the scroll was missing took some time. Naruto left surprisingly few clues especially in the corridors. He did come here quite often when he was younger so he knew the Tower fairly well. That coupled with his knowledge about the underground network was something that made the infiltration very easy for him. _"Too easy in fact. Despite the advantage of this knowledge it shouldn't be that easy. He was never that good at it when you look on his marks. Maybe he's the type that doesn't take theory too well?"_, he thought still scanning through the village. Good thing that Mizuki, who was on guard this day, pointed out several things and clues that he found in the corridors. And in the office itself Naruto wasn't particularly careful. He took what he had come for but paid no attention to other various documents that were in his way. They weren't scattered as much as out of place. After that determining what was taken was simple.

"_But why would he take the scroll of Forbidden Seals? It is something that is way above his current level and extremely unlikely for him to learn something from it. Is it the fact that he failed the exam for the third time the reason behind all of it?"_ Sarutobi suspected for some time that something was going on within the Academy. He did pay attention to the kid when the time allowed him to and saw troubling thing. The marks Naruto got from his tests and exams didn't correspond with the amount of time he put into learning for them. But he couldn't do anything without the proof. And before he was capable of obtaining one Naruto apparently gave up on learning and stuck to the bottom of the class. After that moment he felt like he had failed him somehow. After all he promised the Fourth that he would take care of Naruto.

Then Naruto's first request to take an earlier graduation exam came. While he thought it was definitely too early for such an attempt he allowed it to in order for Naruto to see what he would be facing in the future even though his teachers said it'd be a total waste of time. He failed but kept going on regardless. At that time Sarutobi also received a report from Iruka that there was a chance of Naruto going into the underground network under Konoha. While there weren't any secret or off limits places there (as all safety shelters were completely separate from the network) it still could be dangerous as some tunnels were quite old and could collapse. That's why he sent a couple of ANBU patrols to investigate the tunnels under the pretence of building safety and stability.

Well it wasn't entirely pretence as these tunnels weren't inspected for quite some time already. Surely it wouldn't hurt also to tell them who they might encounter there. The ANBU could be trusted after all. And from what he remembered Cat mentioned already that Naruto knew about at least entrances to the network some time ago. But what was reported to him after the ANBU returned was not a pleasant feedback at all. Cat and Raven found evidence that the tunnels were used by more people then just the blond troublemaker. And Sarutobi had quite a good guess who could be behind all of this. _"Despite disbanding __**Root**__ all these years ago they still are acting on their own."_ This could prove to be increasingly difficult problem to deal with in the future but at the same time had to be tackled with extreme care. They couldn't allow for any kind of mistake. _"Funny how completely trivial matter and my own overprotective nature led to such a discovery. Karma really is a strange thing."_

After that the things went with their regular rhythm. Some time has passed and nothing changed on the surface. The chase after the Root ghosts revealed only few minor things. ANBU found out Naruto's little hideout and Sarutobi had to admit that it was quite cosy place where definitely no one would interrupt him and it made easier to protect him if something happened. He still didn't do well in the Academy but managed to pass all the exams somehow. What was surprising was that he passed them without many problems. He got barely passable marks but that was enough for him to go on. Which hinted Sarutobi towards thinking that Naruto is not as oblivious as many think he is. Pretending to be less able then he really is in order to throw off your opponents was not uncommon. That while being good in the field in making his opponents underestimate him in combat had also a rather nasty side to it in form that he didn't trust his environment enough to show his true colours and preferred to stay in the shadows.

And that thought was not comforting at all because he shouldn't have to hide his abilities from the teachers in the Academy. On the contrary to the last time he couldn't do anything as it was Naruto who was doing poorly not the teachers. Again he wanted to take an early exam and was allowed to but the result wasn't good for him. It seemed that he certainly advanced as a student as he passed most of the tests if only barely. But bad luck seemed to chase him and **"Clone Jutsu"** seemed an unbreakable barrier for him. This was understandable given the nature of the seal on him. With this amount of chakra he'd need a least high chunnin level chakra control to execute it properly. And the fact that Kyuubi was the root of that chakra didn't help either.

After that another year passed which brought us to this moment and the problem where he could've gone with the scroll. His crystal ball couldn't reach to the underground network and there was a large chance that he was hiding there so he dispatched an ANBU squad to estimate the situation there. When he finally found Naruto things were not looking pretty. Iruka was wounded and Mizuki unfolded his involvement in the entire affair. After the secret about the Kyuubi was revealed and Naruto ran off Sarutobi regretted not telling him about this earlier himself. But now it was too late and nothing more could be done about it. All that was left was too see how the things would play out in the end.

Few moments later Sarutobi almost suffered a heart attack when he saw that Naruto gave the scroll to Mizuki. But was even more stunned when the scroll was revealed to be blank inside with only the outside of it resembling the original Forbidden Seals scroll. The subsequent fight was pleasantly one sided and concluded the entire affair. That of course sprung next question: where the original was? In that moment someone decided to knock to his office. "Enter." The door opened and two ANBU members entered the room, one with Cat mask and the other with Dragon. "Hokage-sama. We managed to find this in the Uzumaki's hideout but there is still no sign of him. He must've gone for some supplies before leaving the village.", Dragon masked ANBU reported and presented the original scroll.

"That's not the case but thank you for your assistance. Dragon, leave the scroll here and recall the forces from the underground and the city. Cat tell Iruka that he is to immediately report here with Naruto, he's currently on his way from the training ground 22", Sarutobi said. Both ANBU seemed a bit surprised by the current orders but didn't ask any questions. After all it wasn't their place or role to do so.

Sarutobi had to contemplate before meeting with Naruto at the moment. He without doubt would have a lot of questions and if Sarutobi didn't play it well there would be many more problems then in the future. He needed to be prepared for all possible problems. Naruto just proved that he was smarter then any Academy teachers gave him credit and that meant that the talk could very likely drift to the topic of the Fourth or maybe even his parents which were very difficult ones at the moment. _"And when the family problems are not difficult?"_, Sarutobi thought as he recalled his own problems with an estranged son and Uchiha Massacre. He still had at least few more minutes and he couldn't waste them as this could prove to beone of the hardest talks in his tenure as the Hokage: a talk with 12 year old boy.

* * *

**- At the same time, Konoha East District –**

Iruka was walking, or rather dragging himself, alongside Naruto towards the Hokage Tower. After applying a makeshift first aid and taking care of the Mizuki they went back to the village in order to retrieve the scroll that Naruto had hidden and reporting the entire thing to the Hokage. Naruto also requested his goggles back and put them around his neck. It looked like they were quite important to him but he could not fathom why was that. But then again there quite a few things that didn't make any sense around this boy. Just now he showed that he was really smart and could anticipate, plan and act in very coordinated manner when he really wanted to. Yet at the Academy he had trouble even with some basic concepts and his marks were downright terrible. He could be the type that learned more through demonstration but that still didn't explain everything.

The most suspicious point however, was his tactical acumen. The fact he suspected that something is not right wasn't as much strange considering the fact that he had to deal with people hiding something from him all his life. But the ability to formulate a plan that would take advantage of enemy weaknesses and use the terrain in such short amount of time was unexpected. As he glanced to his student he saw that Naruto was complementing something. That was understandable, even expected considering the recent events but something still didn't sit well with Iruka. He expected some more reaction on the boy's part yet it seemed that he just bottled it up inside of him. Or maybe wanted to know more before doing or deciding anything. While that was a very mature approach he wasn't sure whether Naruto could handle it alone. Just as he was about to ask Naruto, an ANBU landed right beside him and said "You're to report to the Hokage Tower immediately."

"We have to go to one more place first." Iruka said

"It's Hokage's order." was the ANBU's reply. After that she shunshined away not waiting for his reply.

Naruto was walking and thinking about all the things that happened this evening and night. A lot more things in the village made sense now that he knew this few facts more. The treatment that villagers gave him and the behaviour of the teachers in the Academy must have been somehow influenced by this. But why would they try to make him hate them was something he couldn't understand. Or why would they try to hamper his training as a shinobi? The entire thing about him being a demon was also something he didn't fully understand. He didn't feel like an almost all-powerful being capable of levelling the mountains nor did he feel like killing people for no reason.

Of course people got on his nerves more then once and he maybe did hate them for some time in his life but as the time flew by and some people started to warm up to him this turned into resentment. There still were times when he could be angry with some of them but he found several refuges in the village where he could really feel comfortable. Just as he was thinking about it in front of him landed female ANBU in a mask. She seemed familiar but he couldn't remember where he saw her. Naruto suddenly felt nervous when reminded about the upcoming confrontation. After all he did break some laws by breaking in Hokage's Office and stealing an important scroll. The punishment for something like this was probably quite severe. Then when he heard that they were to report to the Hokage without recovering the scroll he was surprised but couldn't ask why because ANBU already left.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei. Why do we have to go to the Hokage without the scroll?"

"Don't know. Maybe the he has something important to say or something else happened. By the way Naruto, I think we should talk about your grades."

"What about them?", Naruto asked in clearly worried tone.

"Considering what I saw today he should have better marks then what you had. Care to explain why were you so slacking off?"

"I wasn't slacking off. I just...", he suddenly cut but Iruka didn't say anything. This was a chance to finally get some answers from him so he had to be patient. "It's just that regardless how much I tried I never got better marks during the first year. Sometimes I had a different set of questions then rest of the class. And sometimes the questions were very difficult and I couldn't find the answers in any of the books. So I decided that there is no reason to try hard on tests when I'll receive the same marks and I wrote them so that I'd have only enough points to pass them.", Naruto finished with a rather solemn expression on his face. That certainly explained several things about his marks. The different set that he spoke off was probably a genjutsu placed on a paper. He remembered that when looking through some of his older tests there were some that had perfectly reasonable and correct answers only to completely different questions. Iruka took them as a sign that Naruto just learned something else for the test.

"But why didn't you tell anyone about this?", Iruka asked.

"At first no one had time when I wanted to ask something after the lessons. And later I got the same things as the rest of the class so there was no reason to do so."

"And why didn't you go to the Hokage with it?"

"Once I started the Academy I didn't see Old Man almost at all. After all it was the Academy teachers decided my punishment after my pranks. And what would that do anyway? I mean, they didn't break the rules."

"Be that as it may you should have gone to the Hokage with it. He can do a lot more then you think. Besides the point is not whether they broke the rules or not. They had no right to judge who deserves training and who not. Their dislike for you is not an excuse to deny you the training you deserved.", Iruka said and Naruto felt a wave of gratitude towards his teacher. Now he could confront the Old Man a bit easier. That still didn't mean that it'd be an easy confrontation.

**

* * *

**

**- Few moments later, Hokage's Office -**

Sarutobi heard them coming when they were in the corridor on the floor where he had his office. It was 2 hours after midnight so there were no people in the building and on the streets in the. Most of the chunnin that was assigned to chase Naruto went home and ANBU were taking Mizuki into custody where he would be interrogated. Now the time came for the confrontation with Naruto. "Enter.", Sarutobi said when he heard the knocking on his door. After that the door opened and Naruto together with Iruka went into the room. They stopped in front of his desk.

Iruka was standing with visible effort which wasn't surprising considering the injuries he suffered this night. But he wasn't worried in the least and held himself admirably well. Naruto on the other hand while physically was perfectly fine, seemed disturbed and… confused. While Sarutobi understood his uneasiness, his confusion was something new. Naruto was generally the type to act first and then care about the consequences. His confusion at the moment was even stranger because he didn't seem like this at all when fighting. That wasn't good as he could reach some false conclusions which in turn could have some unwelcome consequences in the future.

"Take a seat Iruka. You have more then earned it today.", Sarutobi started.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama but I can still st…", Iruka suddenly winced and staggered suddenly when Naruto poked him lightly in the wound. Fortunately Iruka managed to catch himself and said "On the second thought I'll sit down if I may." Naruto quickly fetched a chair from the corridor and Sarutobi smothered a small smile that somehow found its way onto his lips.

"Now I think that we're all ready. From what I was told there was a security breach concerning Forbidden Seals scroll."

"Indeed Hokage-sama. Naruto managed to infiltrate the Tower and steal the scroll. He was led to believe that it was a test in order to become a genin.", Iruka answered while Naruto looked slightly abashed by his actions, "However he switched the scrolls before the confrontation during which the law you imposed 12 years ago was broken."

"I assume that the perpetrator was taken care of."

"Yes, Hokage-sama. But we were unable to retrieve the scroll from its hiding place because we were called here right away."

"Don't worry the scroll is already here.", but somehow these words were clearly a reason that Naruto started worrying as he went a bit pale and looked towards the floor. "Naruto, I'm aware of your little hideout for quite some time already and there's no need to worry.", Sarutobi said in a gentle tone.

"So I won't be punished for it?", Naruto asked and held his breath waiting for answer.

"No you won't. After all you didn't break any rule by going there. The sewers and the underground tunnels are not used by anyone not because it's forbidden but because not many people know about them. The only place that's off limits for you are the safety shelters in the Hokage Mountain.", Sarutobi explained

"Excuse me Hokage-sama but there's one more issue. Mizuki broke the law and also tried to mislead Naruto about the nature of his… situation.", Iruka interrupted for a second

"I see. In this situation we'll need to address the issue of Kyuubi right away. I'll try explaining it to you Naruto as best as I can. As you know Kyuubi attacked our village 12 years ago and caused enormous destruction. The Fourth, my successor at that time, fought him but even he couldn't defeat the beast. So he decided to seal the demon at the cost of his life. Unfortunately the demon could only be sealed in a newborn child. In you.", Sarutobi stopped for a second to see Naruto's reaction, "Do you have any questions so far?"

"So I'm not Kyuubi?", Naruto asked a bit hesitantly.

"No. This is a common misconception that has circled around the village. The Kyuubi is sealed within you but that doesn't make you him."

"Then why do all the people treat me like trash? I'm never treated fairly and everyone treats me like air."

"Sometimes anger, sadness, pain and grief are very strong. When such a thing happens it's easier to endure if you have something or someone responsible to blame for it. People tend to make this kind of accusation when they don't have anything else to concentrate their anger on. It's stupid and unjust but that's what sometimes happens. For them you're a reminder of that dreadful day. They want to forget about it and not be reminded again that's why they try to ignore you."

"And my parents abandoned me for that reason?"

"No, they didn't. Both your parents died during the attack."

"Do you know who they were?", Naruto's eyes went alight for a moment when there was a mention about his parents.

"No, unfortunately not. It was total chaos at that time and the hospital was overflowing with wounded shinobi who tried to repel Kyuubi. You were taken from the hospital by the Fourth and after the battle I returned you there."  
"So you did know them."

"As I said Naruto I don't know who they were. Despite being the Hokage I don't know every person in the village.", Sarutobi said, sitting behind his desk with his hands under the chin. Naruto looked into his eyes but couldn't say whether the Old Man was telling truth or not. Still the fact that he knew so much about Naruto's parents wasn't just coincidence. He would've had to look into it alone later.

"But why me? Why did he choose to me as a container for that thing?"

"I do not know. But I'm sure that there was a reason behind it."

"I was just convenient and at hand to use right? Should've known it was something like that.", Naruto said in a bitter tone.

"You shouldn't say things like that. The Fourth was a great man and if not for him…", Sarutobi started but was suddenly cut off.

"I don't care if he was great or not. Everyone is treating me like pest or annoyance. Using and noticing me when they find it useful for them and then just leaving."

"It's not like that Naruto."

"Then how it is like? Everyone ignores and hates me; teachers don't even try to put any effort to train me. Even you treat me like some spoiled brat. I bet you never had any intention of telling me about Kyuubi at all.", Naruto's voice almost raised to shout putting all of his bitterness into it

"ENOUGH!", Sarutobi raised his voice and Naruto calmed down a little, "That's not true. You just had to grow up a little bit."

"What do you mean by a little bit?"

"Some time. It was never a set date. You had to be mature enough to understand all of consequences of this fact. Now I think that's enough for today. You can go home now."

"Can I have a word with you Hokage-sama. Oh and Naruto, wait for a second on the corridor. I'll be there in a minute.", Iruka said as Naruto reached the door.

**

* * *

**

**- On the corridor outside the office -**

Naruto sitting on a chair was still angry but decided not to say anything more. It didn't seem like this was situation where he could find out anything else. Especially bugging was the case of his parents. He suspected that the Old Man knew a lot more then he said but he wouldn't tell him for now. In this case Naruto himself would look for his parents and their identity. He at least knew from what to start. That is if he had enough time. He would start his ninja training soon and it was quite possible that he wouldn't have as much free time as he had until now. This would make his search difficult. But he'd deal with it when the time would come. Now the biggest issue was the fact that he had an enormous demon sealed inside of him. When he thought about it for a second it seemed so stupid that he cared about at all. He was still who he was and nothing changed in his life. Tomorrow would be another day of struggle. Maybe pretending to be goofy and clumsy idiot wasn't such a bad idea after all. That at least would give him opportunity to judge who really cared for him and who treated him like a nuisance all the time.

**

* * *

**

**- Inside the office -**

"What did you want to talk about Iruka.", Hokage started as soon as the door closed behind the boy.

"A small problem came to the surface when I was talking with Naruto. It seems that his training was constantly neglected during his time in the Academy. I'm afraid he is not yet at the level he should be."

"And yet you passed him as a genin. Don't worry; I fully support your decision. As for the Academy teachers are concerned I suspected something was not right for some time. But unfortunately without evidence or some kind of complaint there's very little I can do. Two teachers were relegated to different tasks but it looks like that wasn't enough."

"But you're the Hokage, there surely must be something you can do about this."

"I may be the Hokage of this village but that doesn't change the fact that I'm only human. There's only as much I can do alone. Besides without even minuscule evidence there isn't much I can do. And my own suspicions are not enough."

"Isn't there anything we can do?"

"Unfortunately not much anyways.", Sarutobi wondered for a moment whether he should tell Iruka more or not. After a moment he decided that there would be no harm done in sharing this bit of information. "And his guardians are gone from the village."

"So he has guardians after all."

"Yes, but one is constantly away and the second cannot enter the village due to some unfortunate consequences. Nevertheless she still keeps an eye on him.", Sarutobi said, _"And that's probably the reason that there weren't any serious accidents involving Naruto when he was younger."_, he wondered how many things did Naruto owe her influence. "But don't tell him that. If that's all then you're dismissed.", Iruka turned around and went towards the door only to hear, "Oh and make sure to tell him not to plan any more pranks. He still can have some ideas left." Iruka let an exasperated sigh and went out. _"Convince Naruto to give up pranking? Sooner Might Guy's going to give up his green suit then that happens."_

**

* * *

**

**- The next day, registration office in the Hokage Tower -**

Naruto sat in the office after he turned in his application form to be registered as a shinobi. He thought about making his picture more artistic then usually but he promised Iruka to not play any jokes or pranks anymore. He had his forehead protector on his head and again put his goggles around his neck. And besides now he decided to take this entire stuff more seriously. Oh he would still pretend to be the old goofy self but there were already few people that knew the truth about him. And since the Old Man was one of them there was no need to act around him. He sat in front of the Old Man who was reading his application form and noticed that the Old Man was glancing at him from time to time as if trying to make sure that he is not up to something. Naruto pouted a little bit, _"I said that I'll take it seriously so why is everyone still looking at me like this? They suspect all the time that I'm, as always, to no good. Maybe a little joke is still in order. After all I can't disappoint them."_

"Well, I must say Naruto that you surprised me again.", Sarutobi said as he lifted sight from the application form to the person sitting in front of him, "Everything is in order and you haven't tried anything yet…"

"**Sexy Jutsu"**, Naruto suddenly transformed into young, very attractive and, what's more important, completely naked girl. "Why, you're too generous Hokage-sama. Is there anything I can help you with?", the girl in question smiled shyly at the Hokage who suddenly tottered on his chair and has fallen back from shock.

"Oops, I might have gone a little overboard with that.", Naruto said as Hokage tried to get up and sit again at the table.

"You call it **"Sexy Jutsu"**? Tricky, very tricky. But don't use again Naruto. Women in the village don't have as much sense of humour as we do." In that moment someone decided to burst into the room.

"Fight with me Old Man!" he shouted as he readied himself to fight with Hokage but unfortunately he tripped on his long scarf. Naruto looked at intruder and realised that it's a kid about six or seven years old. Naruto glanced at the Hokage to ask who is this kid but decided not to when he saw the exasperated look on Old Man's face. As the kid got up from the floor he looked around the room and noticed Naruto. "It was you! You're the one who set this trap.", the kid said pointing a finger towards Naruto.

"Are you sure you didn't bump your head too hard when you fell kid?"

"What did you say?"

"You heard me brat."

"Just you wait; I'll show you who's the brat around here", with those words he charged at Naruto and tried to hit him. Naruto simply sidestepped and put out his leg to trip the kid. He stumbled but managed to catch himself before falling, turned around to throw a punch but it was immediately intercepted by Naruto who then lightly twisted the arm behind kid's back. Just as he was about to say something the door to the room opened. A middle-aged man in dark grey uniform and with black sunglasses stood in the doorway and surveyed the room. A forehead protector on his head easily identified him as a ninja and it looked like he was the kid's trainer.

"What are you doing to the Hokage's Honourable Grandson? Release him at once!" Naruto eyed the kid in question who then said:

"What's the matter? Won't you hit me? I bet you're scared of hitting the Hokage's grandson."

"Like I care! It wouldn't matter even if you were the Hokage himself!", Naruto said as he smacked the kid on the head. After that he decided to leave the room. There was nothing more that he needed there so it would be a good idea to train a little. The ninja that searched for the kid entered what it seemed a rant mode and tried to lecture the kid but didn't notice that the kid was already gone. Hokage looked at the scene with small smile on his lips.

"Where did the Honourable Grandson go?", the ninja asked

"It looks like he followed Naruto."

"Oh no! Honourable Grandson! Where have you gone?", with that the trainer also left the room. _"Let's just hope that Konohamaru won't learn anything dangerous from Naruto. Then again Naruto can surprise people quite often. Maybe something good will come of it after all."_

**

* * *

- At the same time, outside the Tower -**

Naruto knew that he was being followed by someone. In fact it would be difficult to overlook something as blatant as square box with eyeholes which imitated rock. Still he thought that if he ignored it long enough he would be left alone. Now couple streets later he decided that it won't work. Instead he would do something else. Fortunately he knew the neighbourhood quite well and turned into narrow side street and quickly created a clone. While he jumped over the fence and hid himself, his clone continued along the way. Few seconds later when the unfortunate spy turned around the corner he saw nothing unusual. As fake Naruto reached the intersection with a tree growing on one of the corners he decided that the time has come to spring the trap. Clone turned around the corner and dispelled itself while Naruto took position on the tree from which he could clearly see what's was going down. In the moment his clone dispelled himself he felt a strange sensation. Like he looked at the situation from another perspective. _"I'll think about this later. Now to deal with this pesky brat."_

As the strange rock reached the corner and saw nothing it started to look around as if searching for something. After few seconds it even stopped to pretend that it was a rock. The kid stood in the middle of an intersection and wondered what the hell happened. "Now that you've satisfied your curiosity, do you mind telling me why are you following me?", Naruto asked sitting on a tree.

"Man you're really good. The rumours were true after all.", the kid said not even noticing the question.

"What rumours?"

"Okay, I decided! I'll make you mine boss."

"Boss?"

"Yeah, you'll be my boss and teach me that cool move that surprised Old Man so that I can defeat him and become Hokage!"

"Well I can teach you but haven't you got trainer already?"

"Ebisu-sensei is not teaching me any cool stuff. Just the same exercises all over. I have to get strong and become Hokage quickly."

"Whatever. I was about to go training myself so it won't make any difference if you tag along."

**

* * *

**

**- 3 hours later, training ground 22 -**

"Wrong! Once again!"

"Hai!"

"Wrong! You need to know exactly what you want to transform into. First imagine the object and concentrate on it. Then mould chakra and make hand seals. Once again!

"Hai!"

Ebisu heard this conversation as he neared the training ground. This was quite intriguing as was the fact that demon brat was apparently training at this time of the day. From what he heard from other teachers, Uzumaki's marks were terrible and his skills almost non-existent. Yet this part of advice he heard was perfectly logical. Maybe not phrased like he would but logical and correct nonetheless. Maybe he shouldn't just jump to conclusions. As he arrived at the training ground he hid behind a tree and decided to observe the situation. He saw that the demon brat was making pull-ups with one hand on a tree branch but he couldn't see the Honourable Grandson. But it certainly looked that Uzumaki took his training seriously. It wasn't how he imagined it. Maybe a little test was in order to check how the things really looked like. Ebisu himself stayed hidden and even backed a little bit all the while his shadow clone went towards the clearing.

"By the way why are you so keen on beating the Old Man?", Naruto asked not stopping his exercises. The kid made a sad face for a moment before answering.

"My parents named me Konohamaru after the village so it should be easy to remember. But everyone calls me the Honourable Grandson of the Hokage. Nobody sees me as me. So I'll beat the Old Man and become Hokage myself!", answered the kid

"Here you are Honourable Grandson.", Ebisu announced as he arrived and landed on one of the branches of the tree.

"Oh no not him again.", Konohamaru bemoaned.

"Now, now Honourable Grandson. This is no time complaining. The only shortcut to the Hokage's chair is if you take my special training. In order to…"

"**Sexy Jutsu"**, Konohamaru exclaimed and Ebisu looked stunned for a second when he saw pretty brunette standing in front of him completely naked. But it lasted for only two or three seconds but he managed to compose himself.

"What kind of technique is THAT?? I'm a gentleman; such skill will never work on someone like me! Now come on Honourable Grandson we have to get going.", Ebisu walked to and started to drag Konohamaru towards the village. He was engrossed into this that he didn't notice that suddenly several clones popped into existence near Naruto and just as quickly hid themselves.

"**Transform"**, Ebisu heard the call and turned towards it only to see another naked girl this time with blond hair in pigtails. This one was even more shapely then the previous and was leaning towards him in a sensual pose. It'd take him several seconds to compose himself but wasn't given that much time as clones descended upon him. Two went for his legs just as next two struck at his guts.

"Cool! I so want to do that too. I couldn't even take out this stupid trainer of mine!", Konohamaru started again not noticing that his trainer mysteriously disappeared. Naruto however did notice it and dispersed his clones wondering what it was all about.

"Well it seems you've finally got a hang of this jutsu.", Naruto said interrupting Konohamaru's rant.

"Yeah! Now I can at last defeat the Old Man and become the Hokage!"

"Like it'd be that easy. No one would listen to a runt like you."

"What did you say?!"

"There are lot more obstacles to overcome before becoming Hokage. Just repeating Hokage, Hokage won't get you anywhere. There just aren't any shortcuts to that position."

"So where can I start?"  
"You can start from beating me! Cause I'm going to be the next Hokage.", as Konahamaru looked at Naruto the sunset illuminated the clearing and he found the entire scene strangely captivating. He shook his head to get rid of that sensation when Naruto spoke again, "And on a serious note you can start by listening what this closet pervert has to say. Sure he can be annoying just as Iruka-sensei is boring but he knows what his talking about."

"Don't try to act so cool. You're not my boss anymore. From this moment on we're rivals!"

"I never said I'm going to be your boss anyway. Besides I'm starting my shinobi work tomorrow so I wouldn't have time to train you anyway.", with those words he started to go towards the village and waved, "See you another time… Konohamaru."

Sarutobi was watching the entire scene in his crystal ball with a kind smile. _"As always surprising and unpredictable. He even managed to use that silly jutsu of his effectively in actual combat. But this is just the beginning of the long road that lies in front of you, Naruto."_

**

* * *

**

**- Few minutes later, one of the streets in the South District -**

Naruto decided to go and buy new weapons that day as tomorrow he wasn't sure whether he would have time for this. All the ones he had, were damaged somewhat and something told him that he would need them soon. As he was walking down the street he noticed that a familiar figure was waiting on a corner and looking at him. He squinted his eyes and recognized the figure as Ebisu, Konohamaru's tutor. What was different about him was the fact that he was looking at Naruto differently. The hate that was present this afternoon wasn't gone but had diminished greatly and it looked like it was replaced by… curiosity?

"So did I pass the test?", Naruto asked as he neared the corner.

"I don't know, the results are not released yet. But I'd venture you did fairly well."

"Well that's a relief. I don't know what I'd have done if I failed another test."

"There's no need to be sarky. Besides while there is no need to pass this test, it's still better to do so rather then fail it.", Ebisu said as he got from his place and started walking in the opposite direction.

"I suppose so."

"The fact that someone does not give you a chance doesn't mean that you have to agree and go with it, now does it?", with those words he disappeared leaving few leaves after him. _"Okay that was strange. Still nice to know that not everyone is blind to what's going on around them."_, after this encounter Naruto resumed his walk in the search of weapons. Out of all things that he had to buy for himself the weapons were the biggest problem. Somehow every weapon merchant in the village wanted to charge him 50% more then other people. That's why he frequently changed merchants from which he bought. What's interesting is that none of the other trades had so much animosity towards him. There were at least several other merchants that sold him wares maybe not with a smile but a least they didn't overcharged him like the others. As he was walking he noticed one shop that he wasn't in yet. _"Might as well check this one."_, he thought as he walked in.

"Good evening.", Naruto said and put on his idiot smile.

"Good evening.", said the shopkeeper turning around to face his new customer. He was a tall and very muscular man with short brown hair, "How can I help…", he trailed off when he noticed who went to his shop. It was an unspoken rule that the weapon makers and merchants should discourage the demon brat from buying any weapons. After all he was dangerous enough without them so why should they supply him with more weapons. He narrowed his eyes at the kid in front of him. "What do you want?"

"Well I was just looking around and wondering if I should buy something."

"Well then make up your mind, I don't have all day you know.", Naruto was about to answer when he heard someone approaching. Moments later he heard a voice.

"Hey pops, where do you to put want this new bunch of kunai?"

"Bring them here Tenten.", the shopkeeper answered and from the backroom came a young girl, maybe a year older then Naruto. She was dressed in blue Chinese style shirt and black trousers. She had her hair tied in several buns. She went in carrying a box full of brand new kunai. When she noticed Naruto she said, "Oh it's you, hi there."

"You know him Tenten?", he father asked frowning a bit.

"Only from sight, he took exam last year and he was in the same group as me but failed. So did you manage to pass now?"  
"Of course I did, believe it!", Naruto answered

"So what do you want?", her father asked not really happy with her daughter new acquaintance but he couldn't really do much now without breaking the Third's law or raising some serious suspicions so he decided to let go the demon brat of the hook this time. Naruto sensed a slight change in shopkeeper's demeanour and decided to take his chance. "I'll take a dozen of kunai and 40 shuriken. That would be all."

"Only? No other weapons?", the shopkeeper asked surprised that Naruto wouldn't take advantage from his a bit more lax disposition.

"Nah, it's not like I can fight with them."

"That's wise. A weapon is of no use if you cannot wield it properly.", Tenten threw in.

"Yeah, here's the money and thanks for the weapons.", Naruto said and went out of the shop.

"What a strange kid? It's as if nothing what's going on around him got to him at all.", the shopkeeper mumbled to himself.

* * *

A/N

So that concludes another chapter.

Now some side notes: I'll try to maintain equal amount of time for all potential romantic interests in the story but there's still some time before I introduce Yugito here. I want to make sure that it'd make sense and I don't want to rush it. I'm also going to deviate from the mange more and more as the story will go on so it's a warning for all those that don't like AU.


	6. Ups and downs of a ninja life

Sorry for the long delay but life has its own rules and sharing it between studies and work leaves little time for other things.

Chapter 5: Ups and downs of ninja life

* * *

**- Next day, Konoha ninja Academy -**

Sakura Haruno woke up in very good mood. She left her home and proceeded to the  
Academy fairly early and arrived on the spot with some time left. Today was the day that they will be placed on teams with their jonin sensei. Finally she had finished her long course and now would become a shinobi. And maybe today Sasuke-kun would finally notice her. She would like very much to be placed on the same team with him but as there were quite some number of teams there was a possibility that it wouldn't happen. But she was optimistic that he would finally made him notice her. When she thought about Sasuke she had to ponder about someone else also.

Naruto Uzumaki; the bane of her existence. Well now that he failed she felt a bit sad but banished the thought immediately. Now that he was gone she would have easier time with Sasuke. After all it was his fault that Sasuke still didn't notice her. He would be around her all the time trying to take her on a date or something else. She entered the classroom and looked around searching for Sasuke. She spotted him sitting in one row and immediately after she noticed that Naruto was sitting in the same row. _"But what is he doing here? Didn't he fail the test? Oh great now I'll have to deal with him again and again. Well as long as he doesn't end on my team I can survive one more day."_ She noticed that he had headband on his forehead along with those ridiculous goggles he always wore which were around his neck this time. She approached the row and said: "Move it Naruto!"

Naruto was sitting in one desk when he suddenly heard that someone shouted his name. He raised his head to see one of the girls from his class that was standing next to his seat apparently waiting for him to move. This girl was Sakura, one of the smartest kunoichis in class and undisputed president of the Sasuke fanclub. No wait, there was one that disputed that position and now she entered the class. Ino Yamanaka. Now that she also entered the classroom there was no way for him to rest any more.

He wasn't even given a chance to reply when he was whisked away from his seat and landed on the floor. He was really getting sick of being treated like that by everyone. With Sakura an additional problem was that he really liked her. She was pretty, smart and really nice to everyone. But with him she was… not so kind. To be frank she was just the same as anyone else from the village. Now he was starting to wonder whether she was really as nice as he thought previously but wasn't given much time as Iruka entered the classroom to declare the teams that Hokage and senior jonins decided.

"Calm down! Now! I don't care who sits where just SIT DOWN! Sakura! Ino!", after few seconds from saying that everyone was in place.

"Ok now. I wish to congratulate you all on passing the graduation test. Now I'll declare your teams. Team 1…", Naruto settled down at his seat next to Sakura and wondered who he'll be on his squad with him when suddenly he heard:

"Team 7: Naruto Uzumaki", Naruto after that paid more attention, "Sakura Haruno", Sakura slumped visibly while Naruto wondered whether he should do the same or be happy to be on the same team as his crush, "and Sasuke Uchiha". A hearing that Naruto gave a quiet groan which was followed by squeal of joy from Sakura. _"What did I do to deserve such a team. Let's just hope that we'll at least get a decent sensei."_

At the same time thoughts of a different occupant of this room were surprisingly similar even though for completely different reason. _"Now that I'm finnaly out of this acadmy I'll have to bother with some weaklings which'll slow me down even more. I need the power to fight Itachi and I won't get it with those weaklings." _After all the teams were declared he immediately got up from his seat to escape the mob that always followed him. Fortunately for him not many people from the group were capable of keeping track of him so the escape was not difficult at all. Only hope was that they would maybe get a competent sensei. He was after all an Uchiha so giving him someone good and competent was only natural. He observed as his pink haired teammate exited the building apparently searching for him. After her his other teamate went out of the building and chased her. But it didn't have anything to do with him so he went to eat his lunch in peace for a change.

* * *

**- At the same time, memorial stone -**

Hatake Kakashi was at his usual spot paying his respects to his fallen comrades. But at the moment he had also other things on his mind. Like a new team of Genins to test. Not like this one would be any different from the ones he had in the past. Most likely they would fail just like the rest. But he had to give them a shot at this at least. Who was in his team again?

The Uchiha was certainly someone to look out for. He was after all the rookie of the year and it would be interesting to see what did he have up his sleave. Another one was Haruno Sakura. Supposedly the smartest kunoichi in the class but Kakashi privately wondered whether there was anything else from theoretical knoledge that she had. And the last member of the team Naruto Uzumaki. The dead last and troublemaker of the class. Frankly speaking he didn't know what to expect from him. His skills were just to random to venture any kind of prediction about him. _"Well I think it's about time I introduced myself to them. It is after all three hours after the appointed time."_, he thought looking at the sun.

* * *

**- Back at the Academy -**

Naruto was sitting in his desk with a gloomy expression on his face. After his short conversation with Sakura during the break he was certain that his crush on the pink haired girl evaporated from his mind permamently. And now what's worse he had a lot of time to contemplate the entire matter thouroughly because their sensei was already three hours late.

"Why the hell is our sensei so late?" Sakura asked pacing through the classroom. That gave Naruto an idea. _"If he's going to be late he has to know that there are consequnces. Maybe a little prank is in order to teach him a lesson. But the problem will be how to prank him. He is a Jonin after all."_, After a couple seconds he managed to come up with a decent plan. He would need some distraction. He placed sponge from the blackboard between the door and the frame as a distraction and worked on a more elaborate trap that was set up just behind the door. He set a trip wire and added one of his last paint bombs that would drop on when his sensei would step on the wire. Now only thing left was to wait.

"Geez, Naruto stop with these pranks already.", Sakura said from her spot.

"What? He'll get what he deserves for being late.", a moment later they saw that someone started to open the door and a head with a mask and forehead protector that covered one of his eyes appeared in them only to be hit with the sponge causing a huge cloud of chalk dust to cover the man's head.

"Haha, I don't believe that he fell for it!", Naruto laughed but couldn't help but notice something. His sensei stepped on the first trap not on the second which was more "dangerous". Did it mean that he knew about it and decided to play along or was he just lucky. Still it would be better to stay cautious for the time being.

"I'm sorry sensei he's always so annoying. Shut up baka for a second.", Sakura apologized in the meantime.

"Hmm, my first impression of you? I don't like you guys.", their sensei said finally and added "Okay meet me on the roof now for the introductions."

* * *

**- 5 minutes later, Academy's roof -**

"So now that you're all here we may begin. So introduce yourselves.", the Jonin started when they all gathered on the roof of the Academy.

"Introduce ourselves? How?", Sakura asked.

"You know, your likes, dislikes hobbys and dreams.", their sensei said

"Sensei maybe you should go first and show us.", Naruto proposed.

"Me? My name is Hatake Kakashi. My likes and dislikes? Hmm… I don't feel like telling you my dreams. And I have a lot of hobbys. Now go on."

"_So everything we learned is his name?"_, all three Genin thought after the introduction.

"My name is Sakura Haruno. My likes are… My hobbys are…", after each break that she took she glanced at Sasuke who was sitting beside her. Naruto couldn't help but notice that Kakashi visibly sweat dropped at during this speech. "My dislike is Naruto.", she ended and Naruto once again thought what did he see in her in the past.

"Wake up sleepy head, it's your turn.", Kakashi called and Naruto snapped out of daze.

"Right. My name is Naruto Uzumaki. Things I like are ramen, nice and kind people and training. Things I dislike… That would be arrogance and people who jump to conclusions without knowing all the details. Hobbys? Pranks I guess."

"Now your turn emo-boy.", Kakashi said but Sasuke didn't even narrowed his eyes.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. There many things I dislike and not many that I like. I don't have a dream but an ambition. It is to resurrect my clan and kill a certain person."

"Okay now that we have this done next point is our first mission.", as Kakashi said that all three Genin looked at him expectantly, some concealing it better than others. "It'll be survival training."

"What? But we already had survival training in the Academy.", Sakura pointed out.

"Indeed but this one will be different."

"How different it'll be?", Naruto asked thinking that this kind of surprises were definitely not his favourite.

"Well, firstly this time your opponent will be me. And secondly this is extra hard training with 66% failing rating. Only 9 out of 27 will pass it.", Kakashi explained, "Here are the rules and you'd better not eat anything or you'll throw up. Meet you at the training ground 19 tomorrow guys.", after handling them some sheets of paper he disappeared in the swirl of leaves.

Now Naruto started to analyze the entire situation. They were going against a Jonin. That was going to be tough. Hopefully he would give them some kind of advantage. He also said that 9 people would become Genin and that meant three full teams. What he didn't know was whether the entire team would pass or just some people from each and the they would put them in teams again. Well that was to see tomorrow. Now he had to go for some last minute training if he wanted to have a chance tomorrow.

* * *

**- The next day, training ground 19 -**

Naruto arrived at the spot early to familiarize himself with the terrain. He decided not to take any chances against his new sensei, he would pass this test no matter what. That's why he packed all additional kunais and shuriken into his backpack in order to use them to set the traps. But in order to do that he needed to prepare everything in advance. He walked around the ground to see whether there were any places where he could lure Kakashi to trap him. Maybe he would even ask for help from his teammates. The idea of asking the stupid teme for help wasn't exactly enthralling but it was better then failing.

After half an hour he had a good orientation and decided that there were two or three good places to set the traps. The problem would be how to lure his sensei there but that would be addressed when the time came. As he finished setting all the traps Sakura has arrived at the field followed shortly after by Sasuke. But it seemed that their sensei was nowhere to be seen. _"Oh no! Don't tell me that yesterday wasn't just single exception and that our sensei will be late all the time. And I didn't have breakfast just as he told. These few sandwiches I made for later won't be enough o fill my stomach. And it seems that neither Sakura nor Sasuke have even that."_, Naruto groaned as he looked around in vain hope to spot their sensei. He decide that there was nothing to lose so he took out his second breakfast.

"What are you doing Naruto? Sensei said we shouldn't eat anything!", Sakura whispered and looked around expecting sensei to jump out at any moment now.

"Yeah, well, what sensei doesn't see won't hurt him. Besides if yesterday is any indication he won't be here for at least two more hours. So you want some?", he said offering a sandwich to his teammates.

"Hnn, like I need something like that from you dobe.", Sasuke said but Naruto was already wolfing down his and didn't pay any attention Sakura in the meantime wasn't as sure she should decline this proposal. She didn't eat supper yesterday evening which coupled with lack of breakfast would leave her rather weary after several hours. _"Maybe one sandwich isn't such a bad idea. But how will Sasuke-kun react? Will think that I side with Naruto? But will I be able to pass when I'll be so weary. Yeah maybe one sandwich won't make that much of a difference. But on the other hand…"_, Sakura wasn't sure what to do and Naruto ate almost everything in the meantime.

When he glanced at Sakura he noticed that she was thinking about something and couldn't make up her mind. "_Man what a bother. This way she'll never get anything done. But why do I still care? She never cares about anyone. Okay I'll leave her one sandwich."_, after that he decided that a small nap. After all he had at least two more hours of rest. Sakura saw that Naruto ended his meal and thought that her chance has passed as he laid down under a tree to take a nap. But then saw one more sandwich that slipped from his backpack that he used as a pillow. _"It won't be any harm if eat it. It's better then it going to waste."_, she thought and glanced at Sasuke but he didn't pay any attention to the whole situation. _"Hmm, maybe Naruto is not as stupid as he looks. But he still is nowhere near my Sasuke-kun!"_, Sakura thought after the meal feeling a bit energized.

* * *

**- 2,5 hour later -**

Sakura nudged Naruto a little bit to wake him up as their sensei neared the training ground. He didn't look bothered by the time of the day at all strolling nonchalantly into the field not even bothering to look even a little bit sorry.

"You're late!", he shouted simultaneously with Sakura.

"Sorry for that but a black crossed my way and I had to take a detour.", he said clearly smiling under his mask.

"Liar!", another shout came from two of his students but was totally ignored when he set a clock down on one of the tree stumps in the clearing along with two lunch boxes. Then he turned to his students taking out two bells from his pocket.

"Now that everyone is present we can start the test. You have time until noon to take these bells from me. Those who will get them will pass. Those who won't will be tied to a stump and sent back to the Academy.", Kakashi said.

"But sensei there are only two bells.", Sakura pointed out.

"Indeed, which means that at least one of you will be sent back. You can use everything you want when you go after me. Kunai, shuriken any weapon you have. Let me warn you, you won't be able to get the bells if you don't go at me…", at that moment Naruto decided to try something.

His sensei said after all to use everything they had so he decided to test his sensei by attacking him before he ended his speech. He draw a kunai with intent of attacking his sensei and… suddenly he felt his kunai being pointed towards his skull. Kakashi stood behind him holding Naruto's arm in a reverse grip. _"I didn't even see him move. So this is what a true Jonin is like."_

"I see we've already covered the lesson giving it all but I didn't say start yet. You know what, I'm starting to actually like you guys.", Kakashi said, "Okay, now start!". At the signal all three ninjas jumped in different directions in order to hide from their sensei. _"It seems they are hidden well. At least that's what they can do…"_, he thought as he reached to his pocket.

"Stand and fight with me!", a sudden shout come from his side. When he turned around he saw Naruto standing in front of him with his arms crossed. That intrigued him a bit as he was pretty sure that Naruto was hidden in the bushes on his left. How did he make it into the middle of the clearing without him noticing was a mystery.

"Aren't you a bit out of the line here?", Kakashi said trying to figure out what was really going on and pulling out his favorite book

"I said fight me fair and square!", Naruto shouted as he charged at his sensei. He threw a punch only to be blocked. Then another. This continued for two or three more strikes with Kakashi still reading his book and not paying much attention to attacking Genin. After one of his strikes Kakshi slipped pass and crouched behind him but Naruto lashed out of reflex with a low kick and followed by a straight punch slightly above that. Kakashi was surprised with this as he didn't suspect Naruto to be this skilled with taijutsu.

Still it wasn't a level which needed anything more than a bit more concentration on his part. He jumped to avoid the kick and blocked the punch with his forearm landing again beside Naruto who didn't manage to catch the entire sequence yet. Then Kakashi again slipped behind him and wasted no time in throwing him into the river. _"Well, he is more skilled then I thought. And I think I saw something similar already. But where was it?"_, Kakashi thought as he noticed that Naruto dispersed into smoke as he hit the surface of water. He had already noticed that there were three people hiding in the bushes and figured out that one of them had to be Naruto and he was fighting his clone.

As the clone dispersed itself Naruto once again felt the strange sensation and felt like he looked at the entire fight from the clones perspective. That was something to remember for the future. But now he had to concentrate on getting that bell. Still the info that the clone gathered could be useful mainly because it didn't look like luring Kakashi towards the trap he set earlier was an option. Now the real Naruto decided that the time was right to strike and try to take the bell. He made two more clones and decided that he with one clone would attack form the front while one would go behind Kakashi and snatch the bell when the possibility presented itself. The clone charged out of the bushes followed by real Naruto. As Kakashi noticed two more Narutos charging at him he knew that he had at least that technique down perfectly. There was no way to distinguish which one was original and which was the clone. What's more there was possibility that neither of them was real and the Naruto was hiding somewhere biding his time to attack.

That was a very smart way, one he would never expect from blond boy. _"A notable characteristic to add to profile: surprising."_, he thought as he prepared to deal with Naruto now and give some opportunity to his other "contestants". After exchanging few blows he pretended to drop one of his bells near a tree. Naruto acting on instinct went after it while his clone tried to block Kakashi from getting it back. The second clone immediately supported him. He almost got it…

Almost being the key here. Suddenly he found himself hanging upside down from a tree caught in Kakashi's trap. The next moment his clones were defeated by Kakashi and he was left with nothing. He decided that it's better to keep his clone away from this fight as Kakashi didn't show any openings and it could keep an eye on Kakashi while he figured out how to get these damn bells.

"I must admit you're better then I thought but you need to pay more attention. Ninja is supposed to look underneath the underneath.", Kakashi said as he picked up the bell from the ground.

"I get it already!", Naruto shouted from the tree enraged that he had fallen for this trap so easily.

"I tell you this because you don't get it. You think you get it which is not the same as actually getting it. Get it?", at that moment Sasuke decided to make his move. Naruto watched as a volley of kunai and shuriken hit Kakashi but almost immediately dismissed it. It was already several times where he thought he had him only to be painfully proven otherwise. In a moment his suspicions proved to be true when he saw that his sensei managed to perform a replacement technique just before he was hit.

But now that the fight changed place he could think what to do next. First was to try and find a way to get this damned bell. There were only two of them so he had to… wait a minute. There are only two bells and Kakashi-sensei said that nine people would graduate. So how come there're only two bells. It didn't add up. And why did they make them a three people team with a dead last and then make this kind of test. Normally everyone would expect for the dead last to fail as he would've to compete with strongest graduates. He just couldn't figure it out. Maybe there was more to the test then he thought at first. But he still couldn't put his finger on it. Maybe he could find Sakura and ask her. She was really smart so she would probably get it. Yeah that was a good plan.

Now that he had an aim he could get moving. He reached for a kunai ready to cut the rope when suddenly Kakashi's words came back to him: _"A ninja is supposed to look underneath the underneath."_ This couldn't as simple as it looked. With that thought he climbed the rope and cut it only when he was safely sitting on the branch. In that moment a shout came from the forest. _"Sakura is in trouble it seems."_ With that thought he ran into the forest to search for her.

When Naruto arrived at the place from which the scream came he saw Sakura collapsed on the ground. _"She must've been inside of genjutsu and passed out. Now what should I do to wake her up from this illusion."_, Naruto wondered and tried shake her but that didn't work out. Then he thought of something. This might actually work, provided that she could hear him at all. "Ohh, is that Ino making out with Sasuke?", he said into Sakura's ear. The effect was instantaneous.

"Get the hell away from Sasuke-kun you stupid pig!", Sakura immediately got up and shouted in the air and getting ready to pummel her rival into oblivion.

"Well, didn't expect it to go this well.", Naruto said to himself.

"Huh, where am I? Where's Sasuke-kun? Right that was genjutsu that sensei caught me in. Naruto what are doing here?"

"Me? Just wondering around searching for sensei. You know thinking how to get those 2 bells. But man why only 9 students graduate from this exam? I mean this isn't fair. And our sensei's a Jonin to top it.", Naruto said in whining tone.

"Wait did you say? 9 students graduate. But that would mean… And against a Jonin…", After that she seemed engrossed in thought so Naruto decided to take a look around the area and maybe find Sasuke. At that moment his clone dispelled itself and Naruto witnessed the entire fight between Sasuke and sensei. He had to admit that it was pretty impressive that Sasuke managed to touch the bells. Not that he would ever admit it. Teme already had enough ego as it was without adding anything to it.

"I think I got it! There may be a chance for all of us to graduate. If this is what I think it is then that would mean we wouldn't have to or maybe there would be also another way.", Sakura said aloud but Naruto couldn't understand whether she was talking to him or to herself.

"Ano, Sakura-chan? What are you talking about?", Naruto asked a bit concerned about his teammates state.

"Naruto we need to find Sasuke and fast if we want to pass this test."

"No problem! I know exactly where he is."

How?"

"One of my clones found him few minutes ago. He lost to Kakashi also so he probably will be stuck at that place for several more minutes."

They managed to get to the place of the fight rather quickly. But unfortunately when they reached it Sakura passed out again at the sight of Sasuke's head sticking out of the ground. Naruto on the other hand couldn't contain his laughter and burst out when he saw it.

"This is rich!"

"Shut up dope. At least I didn't fall for such an obvious trap like you."  
"What did you say teme!"

"You heard me!", after this exchange they glared at each other for few seconds before Naruto reluctantly let it go and created a couple of clones to dig Sasuke out of his hole.

"I'm doing this only because Sakura figured out something and said that all of us are needed for it", Naruto said as he began his work

"Won't you wake up Sakura then?", Sasuke asked.

"Nah, at least not yet. She'd just pass out again if she saw you like this."

"You've got a point there."

After several minutes Sasuke was free and they went to wake up Sakura. It didn't take long and soon after they found themselves in the forest where Sakura was explaining what had she found out.

"From the information that we gathered it seems that we have no chance in straight fight against sensei. But there is a chance for all of us to pass this test."

"Yeah, right. I'm just wasting my time here with you morons.", Sasuke interrupted

"Shut up teme and listen to Sakura-chan for a second will ya!", Naruto countered

"Hmph"

"What I wanted to say is that the bells are not real point of this test. Sensei said that there are 9 people that can pass. And yet he has only two bells. They couldn't give all the sensei's two bells because that would mean that from one of the teams there would be only one person. Also it's impossible for them to predict that from each of the nine teams there will be one graduate. What's more we're all in three people teams and they always reminded us at the academy is the need of teamwork. Besides let's face it, we're no match for a Jonin."

"You are right Sakura-chan but if they wanted to test our teamwork why would sensei have only two bells? Wouldn't that stop us from working together?", Naruto asked

"So he wanted to see if we can put aside our personal gains and work together to get the bells?", Sasuke concluded, "It still seems a bit shabby theory. Maybe more then 9 pass but they will be replacements for the ones that died on missions. Or they have some spare students from last year?" At that moment Naruto managed to finally connect the dots to the final argument. Now how to present it?

"Man what a drag. And sensei said that we would do a mission today!", he whined.

"That's it!", Sakura suddenly shouted, "This test is a mission. The goal is to get the bells and it doesn't matter what means we use to accomplish it. Sensei is our opponent so not everything he says should be taken for certain. He will try to throw us off somehow.", Sakura finished.

"That's the best shot we can get now. We don't have much time left.", Naruto reminded the rest about the constraints that were placed.

"It seems so. Do you have any sort of plan, Sakura?", Sasuke agreed and both boys looked expectantly at their female teammate.

"Me? Well, we can start from…", Sakura started to think about some sort of plan, a bit embarrassed from the attention that she was given.

Kakashi was currently near the stumps where he placed his clock. His team still had half an hour to finish the task that was given to them but Kakashi didn't predict any kind of revelation from what he had seen. Naruto was really surprising and somewhat better than the academy teachers made him out. Maybe it was that when it came to practical skills he had more experience than others form his pranks and overall lifestyle? Still his hot headed nature made him a rather easy target. Sasuke was definitely more skilled than average but also had more ego. That could prove detrimental to forming a team. Sakura was a real disappointment. She had no practical skills whatsoever. Shame that no one in the academy noticed it before. Theoretical knowledge won't save her on missions that they would take in the future.

As he was contemplating his team he caught a glimpse of an orange jumpsuit that was moving on the edge of his sight. _"Seems like he didn't give up yet."_, Kakashi thought and after a moment he saw another orange suit this time on the other side of the clearing. _"So he seems to think that he can encircle me and attack from all directions at once. Not bad but that's not enough."_. At that moment he felt another presence in the area.

He quickly turned around only to face Sasuke and a barrage of kunais. There were too many of them to be launched by a single person so he assumed that Naruto clones must have done it. That was another way of using **"Shadow Kunai Technique"**. Sasuke again engaged him in taijutsu match but this time tried to keep Kakashi in front of him all the time. At that moment from behind on his left another person attacked. Naruto seemed to have figured out that attacking from that side would be best choice.

Kakashi blocked Sasuke's strike and countered to gain some ground and prepare for coming Naruto. Now he had raise the level a little to fight them both. After trading few blows he managed to hit Naruto twice and was preparing for another strike, when again another person joined the fray. He was surprised when he saw Naruto again. _"So I was fighting a clone all this time? But it didn't get dispelled even though I hit it at least twice. What's going on?"_, after that he managed to hit the clone once more and this time it destroyed the clone. He was about to turn to second Naruto when Sasuke launched himself at the bells using temporary distraction.

Kakashi dodged Sasuke's attack and struck at Naruto to again gain some ground. And again he was thwarted by next Naruto's attack. This continued for several minutes. Kakashi tried to keep Sasuke at bay while he dealt with attacking Narutos. He started to wonder how could Naruto clones attack at the right timing when they couldn't see exactly what was going from the places where they were hiding. Then he managed to locate Sakura. _"So that's how he does it. She sits on the tree and gives them signals how they should behave and which one should attack. Not bad at all."_. Kakashi decided to once again fake an opening to lure his opponents closer.

What he didn't expect was a that the moment he showed it a black figure jumped at him from the nearest tree. At the same moment moment Sasuke decided to have another go. Kakashi dodged the black figure and countered Sasuke's strike sending him on the ground. The black figure turned out to be Naruto who dumped his orange jacket and was in his black t-shirt. _"That's why I didn't notice him earlier."_. Naruto almost immediately after landing lashed out with a sweeping kick and Kakashi opted to jump back. Suddenly after landing he saw that the land I suspiciously soft. He managed to jump in the air just in time as the ground gave way and he saw a hole in ground. At the same moment a sphere made of wooden spikes was launched in the air from nearby bushes. To his horror in middle of it was an explosive seal which detonated sending an array of splinters in all directions. After a moment the dust settled and sensei was nowhere in sight.

"Well that was certainly unexpected.", Sasuke said as he sat on the ground. Sakura came to them running and asked:  
"What the hell just happened?"

"Oops. It seems like one of my traps went off. I forgot I laid them somewhere here before you guys came in the morning.", Naruto said scratching back of his head.

"Baka! Warn us next time!", as Sakura said it a looming shadow appeared behind them. They all turned around to see Kakashi-sensei who looked rather angry.

"YOU GUYS…", at this moment the clock rang, "pass.", Kakashi said and smiled behind the mask. At that moment all three of his students looked a bit stunned.

"What?", Naruto asked breaking the silence.

"You pass. True you didn't manage to get the bells from me but you clearly figured out what the purpose of the test was. You used all your abilities together as a team and that was what was really tested here.", after that he went to small stone monument that stood near the clearing. "As once my best friend said ninja that break the rules are trash. But those that don't care about their friends are lower than trash. Remember it." Naruto noticed that Kakashi's voice dropped a little when he was speaking about his friend. "Also remember that not everything will be as easy as this test.", at that words all three genin looked totally shocked. _"This was supposed to be easy?"_, was the thought that they all shared.

"Okay let's go. Tomorrow will get a real mission this time.", Kakashi said as he started to head towards the village. The Genin followed him shortly after.

* * *

**- A week later, forest in Konoha's east district - **

Team 7 entered the hall leading to what everyone called "Mission Room". It was the room in which Hokage along with some Chunin or Jonin assigned the missions, received payments and requests. As they came to the door they noticed that they'd have to wait for a bit. While waiting he recalled the missions he did this week. Painting the fence, catching the cat, weeding the garden, catching the cat, cleaning the streets and catching the damned cat. What's more it escaped once again and that's the reason he was all covered in cuts and scratches .

Altogether life as a Genin was annoying. What was even more disappointing was that Kakashi was always late. Then they went to get a mission from the Hokage and after it there was no time left for training. Not that Kakashi-sensei ever tried to teach them anything. At least in the mornings before the missions there was enough time for some short workouts so he wouldn't have to worry about his physical condition.

After few minutes of waiting they were finally allowed to go inside. Behind the table sat the Third Hokage and, this day at least, Iruka. "Team 7 reports: mission capture the missing cat Tora completed.", said Kakashi as Sakura handed the cat to its owner.

"Good job. Now your next assignment is cleaning the river. Now..."

"Hell no Old Man! I'm sick of these stupid chores. How are we supposed to get better or gain experience when all we do is some stupid housework. If we are to get any experience and train then we need to go on a real mission.", Naruto shouted from his position, but then he noticed that he said something way too smart for his public persona. "I mean I'm a ninja now! Ninja! Ninja!"

"Calm down Naruto.", Kakashi said, "There are a lot of factors that Hokage needs to take into account when assigning missions. And you just started going on missions and you don't have the experience needed for higher mission."

"Still the dobe has a point. How can we get that experience when we don't go on any higher ranked missions?", Sasuke threw in. _"Sasuke agreed with Naruto? Maybe they are forming a team after all."_, Kakashi thought.

"Oh? So you think you up to the challenge? Well there is one mission that would be appropriate for you. Miho-san, could please show the Tazuna-san in?", Sarutobi asked his secretary, "Thank you. Your mission will be to escort the client back to his country and protect him while he finishes his job. And here is the client.", Hokage said when an elderly man appeared in the doorway with a bottle of sake in one hand.

"So this is my escort. That doesn't look trustworthy to me. Especially the short one in the middle."

"What did you say? You old drunk I'll show just how awesome I am.", Naruto almost jumped at the client but was caught by his collar by Kakashi. "Let me go sensei, I'll beat this stupid drunk to a pulp."

"You can't beat the client up Naruto. It doesn't work that way.", Kakashi said calmly. _"I reaaly didn't know what I was getting into when I agreed to take a Genin team."_ The mission looked like it would be really interesting.

* * *

A/N

So that's it for now. And since the summer holidays are starting soon I think I'll be able to update sooner. I was wondering whether I should go through Zabuza arc now or introduce my own plot but decided that keeping to original storyline would be best. Sorry for all those dissapointed but I do have my reasons. Accepting all the critic though and thanks for all the reviews.


	7. From the mist

A/N

This one is a bit shorter than the others but I hope it'll be to your liking. So now here you go with new chapter.

* * *

Chapter 6: From the mist

**- 1 hour later, Konoha's main gate -**

Naruto decided to go with his traditional attire of orange jumpsuit on this mission but in any case he packed also a green jacket and black pants. It could come in handy in case something happened. Still, since this was just a simple bodyguard mission the most trouble they could encounter would be some bandits and with Kakashi-sensei they would have no problems with those. But better be safe than sorry. With that thought in mind, he packed also extra explosives tags. They didn't weight much so it wouldn't hurt to take them. When he reached the gate everyone but his sensei was already present.

"Don't tell me that Kakashi-sensei's going to be late again. So why do have to get here so fast?" Sakura whined, looking around for their sensei.

"Right!" Naruto said just as soon as he reached the meeting place. He heard a small thump but ignored it as he thought that it was something unimportant. He often heard small soft sounds around him only to turn around and find nothing in the place.

"Maybe because you can always be surprised by someone." Kakashi said, standing just behind them with his usual one eyed smile. "You know, you should pay more attention when on a mission. Next time it might be someone not as nice as me standing behind you."

"Are you sure that it's safe for me to go with these kids?" Tazuna asked

"Don't worry; I'm here if anything happens."

"_Somehow it doesn't reassure me at all."_, Tazuna thought as he eyed one-eyed Jonin who was reading his orange book.

"Yahoo, we're finally going on a real mission! Isn't awesome?" Naruto shouted as soon as they passed the village gates.

"Shut up Baka!" Sakura tried to put him down.

"But Sakura-chan, it's the first time we're outside of the village. Aren't you excited?"

"That's beside the point. And you're too loud!"

"But I'm so happy that we're finally on some real ninja mission."

"Then act like a ninja, Dope", Sasuke threw in.

"What did you say teme?"

"Don't tell me you can't hear now."

"Shut up Teme. I'll show you that I'm twice as good ninja as you!"

"Whatever Dope."

"Teme..."

"Naruto don't call Sasuke-kun that!"

As they went on Tazuna listened to their bickering and wondered what was wrong with this team. It seemed like they couldn't be in the same place for even a minute and not to start a quarrel. It lacked any hint of malice but was quite a bit annoying if it lasted for longer period of time. Fortunately, soon after they settled on their positions, with Naruto next to the client and Sasuke in the front. This way they were far enough from each other so they couldn't argue. This way, at least the road to Wave Country would be quiet.

They were walking for several hours peacefully enjoying the scenery of the Fire Country. Naruto wondered why they still had to maintain formation when they were still on their own territory. But Kakashi was in charge here so he didn't argue with this. Besides this could prove to be useful practice. Since they didn't get much of it with Kakashi, he had to take whatever was offered to him. As they passed a puddle Naruto wondered whether something interesting would happen on this mission.

"_Wait a minute! A puddle of water? On a sunny day like this? Nah, impossible. Maybe I'm just seeing things."_ he thought but he heard some sound from behind and remembered Kakashi-sensei's advice from before. He turned around to see his sensei bound by chains just before he was cut to pieces. He managed to notice that there were two opponents before he was charged by them. Both were clothed in similar grey cloaks and had metal clawed glove on one of each of their hands. They were also connected with metal chain. Naruto wanted to dodge but found that his body was like it had frozen.

"_Move it, move it damnit! I have to dodge it! Have to move!"_ he frantically thought and finally his body started to move. He barely managed to dodge the attack to the side when suddenly, Sasuke jumped from above and pinned the chain with which the two opponents where connected to the tree. They disconnected it immediately and Naruto suddenly saw his chance and tried to trip one of the opponents while at the same time aiming his kunai at his knee. Naruto succeeded in tripping his opponent but he managed to catch himself in time and blocked the kunai with his glove. Metal scraped against metal as weapons clashed, but Naruto didn't have the strength to push through with the strike and opponent aimed his clawed hand at Naruto. But before he had a chance to react, Kakashi stepped in and knocked out their opponent.

At the same time the second opponent tried to take his chance to attack Tazuna. He managed to keep his balance after ditching the chain and started towards the bridge builder. Just as he moved in that direction Sakura stepped in the front of the client but it seemed that enemy ninja is determined to plough through both of them. Sasuke tried to intercept him and even managed to overtake him but Kakashi managed to get there in time and incapacitate the attacker with his second opponent already unconscious held by his collar.

"Pfft, show off." Sasuke mumbled under his breath, "You okay scaredy-cat? You looked ready to run away." he said to Naruto as he recovered from the ground.

"Yeah right, you need your eyes checked if you see things like this."

"Shut up Dope!" said Sasuke suddenly really angry.

"What did you say Teme?"

"Enough guys! Now we have more important things to worry about." Kakashi said as he finished tying their opponents and examining their weapons and equipment. "Now, is there anything you want to tell us?" he asked Tazuna.

"What do you mean?" asked the bridge builder.

"These ninja here are former Chunin from Hidden Mist Village. I didn't take them down immediately because I was curious as to who they were after. Mind telling me what these two may want from a 'humble bridge builder' like you?"

"You must understand that we're just Genin. These opponents are too strong for us to handle." Sakura said to their client

"Come on Sakura-chan! We can do it. There's no reason for us to quit the mission now. Right sensei?" Naruto said as soon as he heard about quitting the mission.

"Well it seems that the opponents are stronger then this level of mission would have so it would be prudent to turn back." Kakashi said as he looked at their tied opponents.

"What? Come on we can make it. I mean we have me! And Sasuke if that helps anything." Naruto responded with the last part being said quietly under breath. Kakashi looked at him and thought, _"Well with the top rookie of the year we may have a chance of pulling this off..."_

"Naruto what's that on your hand?"

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked and looked at his left hand to notice that it was a little bloodied. When he looked at it closer there was a small wound on the back of his hand, "One of them probably scratched me when I dodged their charge."

"Dodged? Yeah right.", Sasuke snickered, "More like ran away."

"What did you say Teme?"

"That's a problem. Their weapons were coated with poison. Even such small scratch can have fatal consequences. We should probably turn back to Konoha and tend to your wounds." Kakashi interrupted.

"Then we'll have to draw the poison, right?" Naruto said like it was the most obvious thing in the world and stabbed himself in the hand with a kunai. As the blood flowed from the wound he stood there with a happy grin on his face.

"Everything is great but you know that now you might die from blood loss, don't you?" Kakashi extinguished the smile immediately.

"What? NO! We must bandage it right away!" Naruto shouted and started running around.

"Naruto you idiot! Just stop running so we can tend to it. Why do you always have to do such stupid things without thinking? I mean now we have even more problems with you!" Sakura berated him.

"Now we can discuss the thing about our further journey, right Tazuna-san?" Kakashi said to the bridge builder as Sakura was bandaging Naruto's hand.

"Yeah, of course. I understand if you want to go back. But please inform my grandson of my fate. It would be so unfortunate for him to live with no knowledge of what happened to his grandpa. But I don't know what he'll think about Konoha ninja when he finds out that they abandoned him in the middle of the road. And there's also..." Tazuna started but was interrupted by a loud sigh.

"Fine, fine, I get the picture. We'll escort you and see how this develops." Kakashi said. After Naruto wound was bandaged they managed to continue their journey.

* * *

**- Two days later, coastal ferry to Wave Country -**

"Thanks for the lift.", Tazuna said to the ferryman after they were brought to the shore.

"No problem. I want to see that bridge completed as well. I may have fewer customers then earlier but at least I'll be able to do my job it in peace."

The journey was peaceful for the last two days. It almost looked like their enemies gave up on trying to attack Tazuna. But it was too good to be true. They were getting close to their destination and that increased their tension. Few more hours passed and they'd arrived at their destination. And the risk of the enemy attack would increase as well. Naruto was on edge the whole time from leaving the ferry. After all, this was the last chance to attack their client before he arrived at home.

When he would get there, attacking him would be more difficult as they would have some kind of protection. Just few minutes after they got off from the ferry, Naruto heard some noise. Immediately he threw kunai in that direction startling everybody except Kakashi who just raised an eyebrow at that sight.

"What are you doing you idiot!" Sakura shouted almost immediately.

"Something was moving there." Naruto said in his defense. Just as he finished, a white rabbit hopped out of the bushes looking a bit scared.

"See, it was just a rabbit. Look and think before doing something. You could've hurt him."

Sorry, Sakura-chan." Naruto responded while scratching his head and Sasuke at that time lessened his grip on a kunai.

"_How could dope notice that there was such a thing. I couldn't even hear or sense anything from that direction."_ Kakashi at the same time was thinking about different thing, _"White rabbit in the middle of summer? Something's not right here. Better watch out."_

"Really, you should watch out more."

"But I heard something move. How could I know tha…"

"Everybody down!" Kakashi shouted all of a sudden and everyone ducked with Naruto pulling the bridge builder just as a huge sword flew over and struck the tree opposite them. It stuck horizontally in the trunk and in the next moment a man appeared standing on it. It was a tall man wearing only blue trousers. His mouth was covered with bandages and one could sense hostility when he looked at the group which recovered from their knees.

"Sharingan Kakashi. No wonder that Demon Brothers were defeated. But your luck ends here."

"Momochi Zabuza. What a missing-nin like you doing here?" Kakashi asked

"You should know it by now. I'm here for the bridge builder. Leave him and nothing will happen to you."

"That's most certainly unfortunate as it is our mission to protect him. We won't hand him off to you."

"You're throwing your life away. You know that you can't win with me." As Zabuza said that he vanished taking his sword with him. Right after that a dense fog started to settle around the team. _"What's going? It's impossible for it to come so suddenly. Must be careful. Something's not right."_, Naruto thought as he heard Kakashi's order.

"Watch out. He's still in the area. Protect Tazuna. Be careful our opponent is the master of silent killing technique." Kakashi said as he reached to his forehead protector and raised it a little bit. The entire team gathered in front Tazuna in a tight defensive formation and prepared for attack.

As the fog got thicker, Naruto tried to concentrate on finding his opponent but it was already to dense to see past few steps. How could anyone move fast or strike precisely in such thick fog? But Kakashi said that opponent was still in the area then maybe he could navigate in this fog. Just then a voice came from above.

"Lungs, kidney, brain, liver, spine, clavical vein, neck vein, heart. Eight points which cause immediate death. Which one will I strike? Which one should I strike first?", Naruto tried to focus and find out where the voice came from but to avail. Instead he just felt chill crawl up his body and almost paralyze his movements. _"What is that feeling? Like I'm about to die. Get a grip man. This is the worst time to freeze like that. Again like during the previous fight but worse. Must shake it off."_ as he focused on his surroundings he felt like the feeling went away a bit but somewhere down deep he still felt like he was at his own execution. After he finally calmed down he noticed that Sasuke was shaking like a leaf in the wind next to him. _"What the hell is going on? First we get fog from nowhere, then the sudden chill and now this. What's going on?"_ Naruto started to panic again.

"Sasuke, Naruto, don't worry. I'll protect you even if it costs me my life." Kakashi said to them and Naruto felt the entire tension drain from him in a mater of seconds.

"Those were big words. But can you keep them, I wonder." As Naruto heard it he noticed that it came from behind him. All the Genins were scattered around and their defensive formation broken. Naruto immediately thought about the bridge builder. But between him and his client stood their opponent. He jumped to the side in hope that he'll be able to distract Zabuza at least for a moment so the others may help Tazuna. At once he launched several kunai in his opponents direction but he didn't even seem to notice.

All the kunai were blocked by the huge sword and it as he took a large swing. It looked like this was the end for their client. Just as he aimed, a blur flew past Naruto and collided with enemy ninja. When he noticed what happened he saw Kakashi-sensei who managed to strike Zabuza with his kunai. But strangely from the wound seeped… water. Almost immediately from mist appeared another shadow with huge sword and cut Kakashi-sensei in two. Only for both parts to turn into water. Their opponent seemed surprised a little bit as he froze for a second. And that was enough for copy ninja to press a kunai against his throat. The entire exchange took less than one minute.

"It seems it's the end of the line for you." Kakashi said while standing behind his opponent.

"Ha, ha. You're really skilled. You already made a clone when I disappeared in the mist. Crafty. But don't think that's enough to defeat me."  
Kakashi hearing that immediately attacked his opponent only to discover it was another Water Clone. At the same time, the real Zabuza landed behind him and aimed his sword at Kakashi.

"Watch out sensei!" Naruto managed to shout as Kakashi dodged the strike. Unfortunately the next attack came immediately in form of a kick that launched him in the air towards nearby lake. Naruto noticed, however, that their sensei jumped a little bit before the impact. Zabuza took off in the direction of the lake, only to stop few meters from the shore and jump into the mist that still enveloped the area. Due to that, Naruto couldn't see that well but he managed to make out two silhouettes on the surface of the lake.

"**Water Prison Technique**", he heard few seconds later and suddenly the mist started to lift from the area. He recovered immediately and stood next to Sasuke who also managed to get to his feet. But what he saw surprised him. On the lake Zabuza stood with outstretched hand which appeared to be emerged into huge sphere made of water in which Kakashi-sensei was encased. It looked like the water inside of the sphere was extremely dense and constricted movement as their sensei didn't even try to move.

"Now then to finish the entire play. **Water Clone Technique**" With those words Zabuza held his other hand at his chest level and water from the lake started to form another copy of him. _"Just wonderful. Sensei is captured and we have to fight a Jonin level ninja while protecting this stupid old drunk. Should we flee? Or buy some time when he and Sakura try to get to the village? Nah that won't cut it though. We'll have to free Sensei somehow."_ Naruto thought, but was suddenly assaulted by the clone. When he landed he was several meters from his opponent. Seconds later he noticed Sasuke landing next to him after receiving similar blow. As he got up he noticed that he didn't have his headband. It lay on the ground next to the clone of the enemy ninja. _"Damn it! We have to think up something fast or we'll doomed."_ Naruto thought as he surveyed the terrain.

A plan started to form in his mind but for it to work he first needed to prepare. So he took out the explosive tag run straight at the enemy. It didn't take long before he was stomped by Zabuza.

"What are you trying to do brat. Playing a ninja? You're not a ninja yet. When you faced dozens of opponents and death several times then you can yourself a ninja." As he was laying on the ground he planted the tag in the ground and covered it barely with dirt. "You Brat are just a pathetic imitation of a ninja." with these words he kicked Naruto again sending him again near Sasuke.

"What the hell are you trying to do Dope? Get yourself killed?" Sasuke asked.

"Don't worry. I have a plan."

"You want to fight him? After he shown us that he is on level of our sensei?" Sakura said

"Do you have any alternative?" Naruto responded

"He's right. It's not like we have a choice. If we want to survive we have free sensei." Sasuke confirmed. Sakura still didn't look convinced but said nothing

"Good. Then let's get started. **Shadow Clone Technique**." several clones sprung to life and charged their opponent while Naruto passed Sasuke, his Fuma shuriken using his clones as a screen to hide it. Just as the clones were to reach Zabuza, Sasuke took off with the clear aim of attacking the original ninja. Zabuza on his part, after blocking few strikes of the clones, saw Sasuke's movement and intended to intercept him. As he started to move all the clones jumped back and the original Naruto triggered the explosive tag buried in the ground. Some clones were caught in the explosion and the others were sent flying in various directions, some towards the lake and crashed on the surface. Sasuke didn't pay much attention to the explosion which engulfed the enemy clone. He suspected as much as he saw Naruto planting the tag. His objective was in front of him. It was time to do his part of the plan while Naruto put another part into action behind the smokescreen from the explosion. He launched his first Fuma shuriken towards Zabuza.

"**Fuma Shuriken: Shadow Windmill**"

"That won't work on me, Kiddo." Zabuza responded to the threat and effortlessly caught the projectile. In the moment he did it he saw that another one was heading in his direction while he sensed that something was coming from below. It seemed that at least one clone survived the impact with the water and now prepared a surprise attack from beneath him. Just as it surfaced, Zabuza used the captured shuriken to destroy while jumping to avoid the second one. It seemed like the entire plan failed but in that moment several shuriken rained from above. Naruto apparently was launched in the air, thanks to his clone, and now was diving towards his opponent. Zabuza was surprised to see his opponent in the air and instinctively fell back thus releasing the prison and moment later Naruto dropped into the lake. As Naruto managed to resurface and saw Kakashi and Zabuza in a blade-lock with Kakashi blocking Zabuza's huge blade with his kunai.

"Nice job, Naruto. Now get out of water before we start fighting. It might get messy." Kakashi said while wrestling with his opponent.

"Hmph. The kid got lucky, nothing more. I lost my concentration and…"

"Don't flatter yourself. You were forced to let go. Now it won't go as easy. I won't underestimate you a second time."

"You can dream. I won't be defeated by a mere imitation." Zabuza said and immediately jumped back breaking the deadlock. Naruto managed to get to the shore but decide to stay on the spot rather than rejoining his team. This way he they would be capable of supporting their sensei from different places. So he climbed the tree and watched the fight on the lake. He noticed that his sensei had done the same thing in the exact same time. Just as Zabuza started making hand seals Kakashi began doing the same thing. Naruto couldn't help but wonder at the sheer number of the seals and speed at which they were being done. For him it was an almost a blur.

Finally two water dragons rose from the lake and headed towards each of the combatants only to crash into each other just before hitting any of them. Zabuza and Kakashi meanwhile engaged in the fight. Naruto thought that Zabuza with his zanbato would have a huge advantage but Kakashi seemed to hold his own very well against better armed opponent. After exchanging few strikes they again retreated and stood in front of each other. No words were exchanged but Zabuza was visibly upset that he couldn't land a decisive blow. Kakashi on the other hand didn't look any different than usual. Only way to tell that he was serious was absence of any emotion and raised forehead protector. For a second they both stood and waited for their opponents move.

Then they started to move. To the onlooker it seemed really strange. The two men started a series of movements like raising their hands or making a few steps to the side. While doing it both looked like a mirror image of each other. Naruto didn't know what to think. _"Is Kakashi-sensei copying that guy? Or is it the other way around? They're doing the same moves at the same time. Something strange is going on here."_

"…read your mind?", came Kakashi sensei's voice across the lake. It sounded like end of the thought. Zabuza seemed utterly stunned but he wasn't given a chance to calm down as Kakashi immediately started another technique. He quickly performed needed seals while Zabuza's eyes widened when witnessing the technique. A whirlpool rose in front of Kakashi and launched Zabuza spiraling across the lake. He hit the tree on the shore and Kakashi didn't waste any time and charged his opponent pinning him to it with a few kunais. After that he landed on the tree branch and looked down on his opponent.

"Can you see the future?" Zabuza asked.

"Yes, this is your death." Kakashi answered. Just then two senbon needles hit Zabuza in the neck and he collapsed on the ground. Naruto jumped a bit as both of them came from the tree he was standing on. Kakashi looked surprised but immediately collected himself. He got down from the tree and checked Zabuza's pulse. After a few seconds, he looked up from the body to the tree from which the senbon came and on which Naruto was hiding. Naruto looked up from his position to see another person standing above him. This person wore gray and blue clothes and a porcelain mask with swirling design on it. _"I never knew he was here. How long? Where did he come from? What is he doing here? And why did he kill Zabuza?"_

"You were right. It was his death." the person said. "I was tracking him for the last two months. You have my gratitude for helping kill him. Now if you will excuse me, I need to go." With those words he suddenly appeared near the body and then disappeared with it. Kakashi looked upon the scene stoically as all of it happened.

"Sensei? What is going on?" Naruto asked clearly confused.

"He was a Hunter Ninja. Their job is to pursue and capture missing nin from their village and then dispose of their bodies. This one was from the Village Hidden in the Mist." Naruto jumped down from the tree with Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna joining them from the other side of the lake. "But we shouldn't drop our guard just yet. Something is not right here."

"Shouldn't we track him then?" Sasuke asked.  
"No. He could lead you to ambush. Besides maybe I'm just overreacting. Nevertheless you'd better not drop your guard. There may be another ambush in front of us."

With that the entire team got back into their formation and marched towards the village. Few minutes after Naruto and Sasuke noticed that Kakashi was not exactly himself. He seemed distracted. He didn't take out his orange book but instead focused on their surroundings. H scanned them several times before his eyes settled back on the road. But as soon as they started going he stumbled and collapsed on the ground.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura and Naruto shouted.

"So what do we do now? We wait till he wakes up?" Naruko asked.

"Baka! We must take him from here. We don't know whether there are other men of Gato in the area. How far is your house, Tazuna-san?" Sakura asked

"It's not far. Just several more minutes and we'll see the village. My home is just few steps from there." Tazuna answered

"Okay. Naruto make a couple of these clones of yours and help carry Kakashi-sensei."

"Hey Teme! You heard Sakura-chan let's carry sensei."

"Hmph. Someone has keep lookout on the road Dope."

"Teme…"

"Get to work!"

"_What's wrong with this team. One moment they manage to pull off incredible stunt and moments later they start bickering like small children. Will I be alright with them? Or will I even be still sane after this ends?_, Tazuna thought when he looked at the team that was protecting him.

**

* * *

- The next day, Tazuna's house -**

Naruto woke up early in the morning and immediately started to dress. Kakashi-sensei didn't regain consciousness since yesterday and they didn't know when that would happen. Something was strange here but he just couldn't put his finger on it. But that wasn't important right now; there would be time for thinking later. Right now was time to train. He tried to leave the room as quietly as possible so as to not wake Sasuke up. He knew that it was unlikely. Sasuke was rookie of the year after all. But as long as he didn't stick his nose in other people's affairs it was okay with Naruto.

It didn't take him long to find a suitable clearing in the nearby forest. Going through his usual regimen he started to think about the situation. _"On the way here we were attacked twice. Both times by ninja. We somehow managed to win both times. Even a boss like Gato will need time to hire more men. Not to mention that he will have to do it before the bridge is finished. There is chance that he won't have time to hire any more ninjas. And by the way, that hunter ninja was damn good. To kill someone with these needles. I wonder how he did that. After all it didn't look like he struck any of the vital points that Zabuza mentioned. I'll have to ask Kakashi-sensei how that is possible."_ Finishing his morning routine he started to go back to the house thinking on the eventual excuse to give to his teammates as they would probably be up.

He was about to reach and open the door when they suddenly hit him on the head. He fell back and landed on the grass in front of the house.

"Huh? What are you doing?" Sakura said standing in the door and looking on Naruto who tried to get back to his feet.

"I was... eh... talking a walk?" he answered nervously.

"Baka! What would happen if someone attacked you?"

"Hehe... Sorry Sakura-chan. I guess I didn't think about that. Are going somewhere?"

"I was just about to go looking for you. Geez! You always do stupid things. Now get up will you. Kakashi-sensei has woken up and wants to see us." After that she went back inside leaving Naruto to follow her. _"It's good that sensei is awake but why would he want to meet with us while he's still recuperating?"_

Upon entering the room Naruto noticed that Kakashi was tended to by a pretty black haired woman. But still it seemed like he barely noticed what was going on; his eyesight was dazed and unfocused. Still it seemed like he was recovering surprisingly fast considering that he was totally out cold when they brought him here. He looked like he was concentrating hard when Sakura went inside the room with Naruto.

"Hey sensei, you're up!" Naruto shouted as soon as he was in the room.

"And I'll stay up as long as you won't try to shout me to death. Now be quiet and listen. It seemed that I missed few important clues yesterday. It may very well be that Zabuza is still alive."

"But you yourself said that Zabuza was dead when you checked him!" Sakura said in disbelief.

"There are techniques to simulate death and in fact senbon needles are perfect tool for that. I'm not making any excuses. It was my mistake for not noticing before but now we'll have to concentrate on training. Zabuza is also wounded and exhausted from our battle so we have some time before he strikes." Kakashi stated.

"Yahoo! Training finally." Naruto said jumping in the air.

"Shut it Dope, it's not like it'll help you." Sasuke quickly tried to tune down his teammate's enthusiasm.

"Just you wait and I'll show you who's the best on this team!"

"But will you be okay sensei? You just woke up and are still recovering from the previous fight." Sakura threw in with a worried tone.

"Don't worry, I've been fighting in worse state." Kakashi stated as tried to get up from the futon. "Okay, but crutches would've been useful still." He said after few minutes of futile struggling.

After several minutes they got to a clearing in the forest near the house where they were staying. It took them so long because of Kakashi-sensei's crutches.

"Okay, this place will do well for this training." their sensei said as soon as they reached the place. "And we'll be learning tree walking. Without hands."

"What? But that's impossible!" Sakura shouted and Naruto was standing right behind her and nodding his head all the while Kakashi was slowly walking towards the nearest tree.

"Oh really?" was his only response as started to walk on the tree bark without any tools or his hands. His students stood on the ground and desperately tried to figure out how to do it. Meanwhile, Kakashi reached one of the branches and started walking upside down on the branch until he reached the end of it.

"Now listen up cause I won't repeat it. In order to do this you need to gather chakra in your feet and then releasing a steady flow of it walk on the tree. Unfortunately there is no set amount of chakra needed for everyone so you need to find it by trial and error. It'll be easier if you gain momentum before trying to climb the tree." He then he took three kunais and threw them at the feet of his pupils.

"Each of you take one and mark your progress. Just slash the tree when you reach better height."

After that was said all three took the kunais and started to prepare for the exercise. Each of them chose a tree while Kakashi was now sitting on the branch looking at them. _"Well then, let's see how far they'll get in their first try."_ he thought as his students started the exercise.

* * *

A/N

Thanks once again for all of your reviews. Also thanks to my new beta-reader Artemis Nox. Any reviews and comments are appreciated


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